Smith v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.

155 S.W. 54, 169 Mo. App. 610, 1913 Mo. App. LEXIS 426
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 3, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 155 S.W. 54 (Smith v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co., 155 S.W. 54, 169 Mo. App. 610, 1913 Mo. App. LEXIS 426 (Mo. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

Plaintiff sued to recover damages for personal injuries lie alleges were caused by negligence of defendant. Tbe cause of action pleaded in .the petition and submitted to the jury is founded on a negligent breach of what is known as the humanitarian rule. The answer is a general denial. The cause is before ns on the appeal of defendant from a judgment of five thousand dollars recovered by plaintiff in the circuit court. Counsel for defendant argue that the court erred in not sustaining the demurrer to the evidence and we shall state the facts material to the issues thus arising.

The injury occurred late in the afternoon of September 7, 1907, on Union avenue in Kansas City. This street is in front of the Union passenger station and its general course is from, northeast to southwest. Witnesses speak of it variously as running east and west and north and south, so that the terms north [612]*612side and west side are used synonymously as are also the terms south and east side. For convenience we shall speak of that part of the street in front of the station as running north and south. Going north from the station the street is on an up-grade and runs straight to a bridge over railroad tracks where it deflects towards the east. Going south the street runs on a straight line to the south end of the station where it turns towards the west. Defendant has a double track street railway on this street and was operating a northbound electric’ car on the east track. The car collided with a beer wagon being driven by plaintiff and inflicted the injuries in controversy. The wagon was of the type used by breweries in carrying keg beer but was loaded with cases of bottled beer which were being taken to an express office at the south end of the station. Plaintiff drove southwest on Union avenue' on the west track until after he crossed the bridge when a car coming up from behind compelled him to leave that track to allow it to go by. Other vehicles prevented him from turning off to the right and he pulled his team to the left and drove on and along the east track, intending to return to the west track as spon as he could “get a clearance” that is, as soon as other vehicles on that part of the street would afford him a passageway. He was driving in a slow trot and traveled fifty feet or more on the east track before he pulled towards the .right and started to leave that track. About this time he observed a northbound car approaching on the east track. The car was 175 or 200 feet away and was traveling at a speed estimated by other witnesses at ten or twelve miles per hour. Plaintiff testified:

“As soon as I saw this car — I saw this car about 175 or 200 feet away from me — I don’t know just exactly the distance, but I .started to get off the track and get from this car’s way. I pulled my horses over and urged them along as much as I could, and I seen [613]*613the car was coming so swiftly, I even whipped the horses, and I got the front wheels over and the hind wheel slipped, and it slid around until the car came right in contact with my wagon going like that. It hit my hind wheel and that is the last I remember.”

Witnesses introduced hy plaintiff state that the car did not slacken speed as it neared the wagon; it struck the hub of the left hind wheel and threw the rear end of the wagon around towards the west in a way to point t'he horses towards the southeast instead of the southwest. Two beer cases were thrown off the wagon and plaintiff was pitched from his seat towards the southeast and thrown to the curb ou the east side of the street. Witnesses for defendant state there was no collision between plaintiff’s wagon and a street ear hut that plaintiff was driving fast and recklessly and drove into the curbstone.

Counsel for defendant attempt to avoid the legal consequences of this apparent conflict in the evidence hy taking the position that the version of the injury given hy plaintiff and.his witnesses is so manifestly false and so opposed to physicál law as to he barren of probative strength and value: It is contended that the testimony of plaintiff’s witnesses is self-contradictory and obviously false as to material facts. For example, an eyewitness who was standing near the scene of the injury stated that plaintiff’s team was headed towards the west track and that the hind wheel was sliding along the west rail of the east track when the street car, with unslackened speed, struck the hub and threw the wagon around and pitched plaintiff to the curb on the east side of the street (the curb was seven or eight feet from the east track.) On cross-examination the witness said:

“Q. And after the ear had gone on up, what did you see then? A. I seen the horses and wagon turn over here, going right back to the south, the horses did, hut the man tumbled to the south.

[614]*614“Q. You say it didn’t stop at all? A. I didn’t see it stop.

“Q. After it had gone on up, so that you could see the horses and wagon, the man was still on the wagon? A. Coming cater-cornered across.

“Q. After it had gone on up, so that you could see the horses and wagon, the man was still on the wagon? A. Yes, sir.”

Defendant urges that if plaintiff remained in his seat until after the car had passed 'on he could not have been thrown from the wagon by a collision, but this argument is based on a misunderstanding of the idea the witness was intending to convey. The interrogation of the 'witness continued as follows:

“Q. And the horses were then coming cater-cornered across towards the Union depot? A. Just as the car passed, the hind end of the wagon was swung around and the horses pulled right in behind the car, and the man tumbled over.

“Q. So that the man did not fall from the wagon until after the car had gone on out of the way? A. I know the man fell off the wagon; the wagon swung around just as the hind end of the car on the west side passed, the wagon came right around and throwed him over. ’ ’

The meaning of the witness is clear — that the impact of the collision was the force that caused plaintiff to fall and that there was no break in the casual chain connecting that force with its ultimate result. We do not find any material inconsistencies in the evidence of plaintiff, certainly not any that would not be issues of fact for the jury to determiné. Nor can we agree with defendant that plaintiff’s account of his injury is opposed to' physical law. Considering the relative positions, weight and speed of the respective vehicles, it seems reasonable to say that a glancing blow delivered by the heavier and faster vehicle on the rear wheel of the other would have the very ef[615]*615feet described by the witnesses and would project the body of the driver of the wagon in the direction of plaintiff’s fall. We are not prepared to declare as a matter of law that plaintiff’s account of the injury is an impossible or unreasonable statement.

But it is contended that the motorman was justified in assuming that plaintiff would clear the track in time to allow the car to pass in safety and that there was no appearance of peril until the unexpected happening of the sliding of the wagon wheel on the rail which kept the wagon in the path of danger after it should have left the track in safety. There is a suggestion in this argument of a Procrustean effort to make the facts of the present case fit the rule applied by' us in the cases of Hebeler v. Railway, 132 Mo. App. 551, and Barnard v. Railway, 137 Mo. App. 684.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
155 S.W. 54, 169 Mo. App. 610, 1913 Mo. App. LEXIS 426, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-metropolitan-street-railway-co-moctapp-1913.