Speer v. Southwest Missouri Railroad

177 S.W. 329, 190 Mo. App. 328, 1915 Mo. App. LEXIS 429
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 17, 1915
StatusPublished

This text of 177 S.W. 329 (Speer v. Southwest Missouri Railroad) 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
Speer v. Southwest Missouri Railroad, 177 S.W. 329, 190 Mo. App. 328, 1915 Mo. App. LEXIS 429 (Mo. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

ROBERTSON, P. J.

Tbe defendant operates an electric street car service on a double track for a con-, siderable distance along Daugherty street running east and west in Webb City. Walker street crosses it at right angles a short distance west of where defendant’s road leads over a viaduct. On June 14, 1909, the plaintiff, then a stranger there, was riding, for pleasure, in an automobile of a friend, being operated by the owner, traveling south on Walker street and in cross[330]*330ing Daugherty street a collision occurred between the automobile and two cars passing in opposite directions on defendant’s track, demolishing the automobile and seriously injuring the plaintiff. This action was instituted alleging defendant’s negligence and an ordinance of Webb City prohibiting street cars from running therein at a greater rate of speed than six miles per hour. The defendant answered by a general denial and allegations of the negligence of the driver of the automobile in running at a careless and reckless rate of speed upon its tracks; that neither the driver of said automobile nor the plaintiff looked or listened for cars on defendant’s track and the said driver did not check or slow up his automobile before attempting to cross the track which plaintiff well knew, and that the driver of said automobile attempted to cross defendant’s track at a reckless rate of speed in front of defendant’s westbound car and attempted to turn his automobile to the east and ran it into defendant’s car going east, the westbound car running into the automobile before the motorman thereof could stop the car and prevent the collision. It is alleged that plaintiff knowing the negligence of the driver of the automobile in driving at a reckless rate of speed without looking or listening for street cars did not make any effort to have the driver of said automobile check its speed or to look or listen for street cars and that the plaintiff failed to look or listen or to make any effort to have the driver of the automobile do so.

A jury trial was had which resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. During the progress of the trial the ordinance referred to in plaintiff’s petition was offered and received in evidence without objection. The defendant offered in evidence a section of its franchise limiting the speed of its cars to ten miles per hour. Upon an objection by the plaintiff that the ordinance which it had previously offered in evidence was of a later enactment the court refused to admit the section [331]*331of the franchise, to which the defendant excepted and at the close of the testimony requested an instruction to the effect that the ordinance referred to in plaintiff’s petition did not' apply to defendant as it was in violation of its franchise. The defendant’s motion for a new trial assigned error upon the action of the court in refusing to admit its franchise in evidence and to give the instruction thereon, asserting in the motion that such action violated section 10, article 1, of the Constitution of the United States in that the action of the court impaired the obligation of the contract between Webb City and the defendant and also that it violated section 15, article 2, of the Constitution of the State of Missouri and section 30, article 2, of said Constitution. The motion for a new trial was overruled and the defendant appealed to the Supreme Court of this State from whence it was transferred (174 S. W. 381) to this court for the reason that the effort of the defendant to raise a constitutional question was not timely made.

The defendant insists here that there is nothing in the record of this case to disclose that the ordinance which constitutes its franchise antedates the ordinance referred to in plaintiff’s petition and offered in evidence by him. Evidently when these offers were made there was before the trial court the entire ordinance from which the sections quoted in the record were taken. When defendant offered the section of its franchise plaintiff objected thereto on the ground that the ordinance offered in its behalf was of a later date than the one constituting defendant’s franchise. The court sustained the objection as made and defendant in no way challenged the assertion as to the dates of the respective ordinances. In respondent’s brief it is stated that the franchise ordinance was passed October 3, 1892, and the ordinance. relied on by the plaintiff on May 15, 1905. At the oral argument this assertion in respondent’s brief was not challenged and con[332]*332sidering the form of the objection, the continued silence of the defendant on the question of the real dates of the ordinance we hold that it cannot now be heard to contend otherwise than that 'it is a fact that the ordinance relied upon by the plaintiff is later than the franchise ordinance. If this is not true it is incumbent on defendant to print so much of the ordinances in its abstract of the record as is necessary to show the contrary.

This case was briefed by both parties for the Supreme Court and the briefs have been transferred and submitted to us for use in the final disposition of this case. In the briefs, as well as in defendant’s motion for a new trial, the only objection urged against the admission of the ordinance relied upon by plaintiff in evidence and the rejection of the section of the one relied bn by defendant is that thereby the defendant’s constitutional rights were invaded. The Supreme Court decided that this contention is not in this case for decision, which, since there is no other point made as to the ordinance, disposes of that question as well as the point urged as to the dates above discussed.

Many of the questions raised here are based, as so often happens upon the misconception of the effect of the testimony adduced in the trial of the case. The question of imputed negligence is not before us for decision as the instructions upon this question requested by the defendant were given and it is, therefore, unnecessary for us to consider whether or not they, properly declare the law. They fully covered the defenses as pleaded and developed by the testimony.

It is insisted by defendant that we should hold the plaintiff guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law and this is based upon the assumption that there is no testimony tending to prove that he exercised such care as an- ordinarily prudent person would havé exercised under the same or similar circumstances and it is said that the physical facts aré such that much of [333]*333the testimony which is apparently favorable to plaintiff should be disregarded. We shall discuss this case with as little reference to the driver of the automobile as possible and without any intent or purpose of prejudging his rights.

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Related

Mockowik v. Kansas City
94 S.W. 256 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1906)
Speer v. Southwest Missouri Railroad
174 S.W. 381 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
177 S.W. 329, 190 Mo. App. 328, 1915 Mo. App. LEXIS 429, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/speer-v-southwest-missouri-railroad-moctapp-1915.