State Ex Rel. Spears v. McCullen

210 S.W.2d 68, 357 Mo. 686, 1948 Mo. LEXIS 676
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 8, 1948
DocketNo. 40590.
StatusPublished
Cited by55 cases

This text of 210 S.W.2d 68 (State Ex Rel. Spears v. McCullen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Spears v. McCullen, 210 S.W.2d 68, 357 Mo. 686, 1948 Mo. LEXIS 676 (Mo. 1948).

Opinion

*689 CONKLING, J.

[69] Moses Spears, plaintiff below, recovered, a judgment for damages for personal injuries in the circuit court of the City of St. Louis. The St. Louis Public Service Company, defendant below, appealed to the St.‘ Louis Court of Appeals.' ‘That court reversed the' judgment and remanded the' cause. See 202 S. W. (2d) 578. To revieAV the record we brought the cause here by certiorari.

The collision between the automobile operated by plaintiff and the street car of defendant occurred on Lockwood Avenue, near the intersection of Gray Avenue, in Webster Groves, Missouri. Lock *690 wood Avenue extends east and west; street cars run both east and west on that street; Gray Avenue extends north and south intersecting Lockwood. Travelling south on Gore Avenue plaintiff came to its intersection with Lockwood and stopped his automobile. He testified he looked both east and west on Lockwood and did ■ not observe any approaching traffic, neither a street car nor other traffic. He could see east substantially half a block. A Chevrolet coach had stopped in front of him. Both vehicles started up and turned west into Lockwood driving west upon the westbound street car track, plaintiff driving about 15 or 20 feet behind the Chevrolet and at a speed of from 20 to 25 miles per hour. Upon nearing Gray Avenue, the first street west of Gore Avenue the Chevrolet slowed down and plaintiff was likewise compelled to reduce his speed to between 5 and 15 miles per hour. Plaintiff testified he reduced the speed of his car gradually but gave no arm signal of his intention to do so. Soon after his speed was reduced plaintiff’s car was struck in the rear end by defendant’s westbound street car. When it was struck plaintiff’s car was from 8 to 15 feet behind and east of the Chevrolet, and was running upon the rails of the street car track. His car was knocked forward into the rear end of the Chevrolet. The street car, continuing to run on west, again struck the rear end of plaintiff’s car and caught on plaintiff’s rear bumper. The collision occurred about 300 feet west of Gore Avenue and about 30 feet east of Gray Avenue.

It was testified by plaintiff that, although there was a rear vision mirror in his car, before the collision he never saw the street car behind him. After the collision plaintiff’s automobile .was facing west and was about the center of the street car tracks. The rear end of plaintiff’s automobile was under the front end .of the street car. A crow bar was used to pry them apart. Defendant [70] offered no testimony upon the negligence issue.

For plaintiff the cause was submitted to the jury upon his instruction No. 1 in these words:' “The Court instructs the jury that if you find from the evidence that on the occasion mentioned in evidence, the plaintiff’s automobile was headed westwardly on Lockwood Avenue, and in the westbound street car tracks, and that the defendant’s streetcar was east of plaintiff’s automobile and was being operated westwardly, and that the street car overtook the plaintiff’s automobile, if you so find, and that the operator of the street car negligently and carelessly allowed it to run into and collide with the rear end of the automobile, if you so find, and that as a direct result of such negligence, if any, on the part of' the defendant, the plaintiff was injured, then, and in that event the plaintiff is entitled to recover, and your verdict must be in favor of plaintiff arid against defendant.”

*691 The allegation of negligence in the third paragraph of the petition upon which plaintiff based his instruction 1 was as follows: “3. That on or about the 9th day of October, 1945, plaintiff was operating his automobile westwardly on Lockwood Avenue and when said automobile' was approaching Gray Ayenue, the said. automobile was violently struck in the rear thereof by a westbound street car of defendant herein, which was being operated by defendant’s - agent, servant, and employee, in a careless and negligent manner; and as a result thereof, plaintiff was injured in the following respects:”. It is noted that it is alleged that the negligent act resulted in plaintiff’s injuries. . .

The fourth paragraph of the petition set out in detail the personal injuries plaintiff claimed he received. The fifth paragraph was, in part, as follows: “5. Plaintiff states that, all of his injuries were directly and proximately caused by the carelessness and negligence, of the defendant in the following respects”: (a) operating street car with defective brakes, (b) failure to warn, (c) failure to slacken speed, (d) failure to stop, (e) excessive speed and (f) violation of humanitarian rule. Plaintiff of course conceded that subparagraphs (a) to (f) inclusive of paragraph five are allegations of specific negligence. Plaintiff did not submit (a), (b), (c), .(d), (e). or (f), supra, to the jury by instruction.

The first question presented is whether the allegation in. paragraph three was one of general or specific negligence. Without - giving its reasons for so holding the Court of Appeals ruled that the= third paragraph, above quoted, was an allegation of general negligence. If' paragraph three of the petition charges only general, negligence the Court of Appeals ruled correctly in reversing and remanding the ease, because an allegation of general negligence is restricted by specifications of particular or specific negligence, and plaintiff must recover, if at all, Aon the specific negligence thus alleged. Burneson v. Zumwalt Company, 349 Mo. 94, 159 S. W. (2d) 605, 610.

But we hold that the allegation in paragraph three of the petition is one of-specific negligence. Jones v. Central States Oil Company, 350 Mo. 91, 164 S. W. (2d) 914; Thompson v. Keyes-Marshall Bros. Livery Co., 214 Mo. 487, 113 S. W. 1128; Richardson v. K. C. Rys. Co., 288 Mo. 258, 231 S. W. 938; Beier v. St. Louis Transit Company, 197 Mo. 215, 94 S. W. 876; State ex rel. K. C. Rys. Co. v. Trimble (Mo. Sup.), 260 S. W. 746, Davidson v. St. Louis Transit Company, 211 Mo. 320, 109. S. W. 583, 595.

The specific thing charged in the above quoted third paragraph of the petition is the negligent operation of the street ear by a specific person, the operator thereof, in that, while plaintiff was operating-his automobile westwardly on Lockwood, and when approaching Gray Avenue, the street .car operator was negligent in that he violently drove the front end of the street car into the rear end of *692 plaintiff’s automobile: The charge is specific in alleging who did it, what was done, the manner in which it was done, the general situation and where it was done. It is negligence for-an operator of a street car to so operate the car as to violently drive the front of the street car into the rear of an automobile on the track ahea’d of the car. The courts have long considered it to be negligence. See cases cited supra. The jury in the cause found it to be negligence. The statement of such specific facts, as are alleged in the third paragraph “accompained with a [71] charge of negligence”, is a charge of specific negligence. Thompson v. Keyes-Marshall Livery Co., supra. As an- allegation of specific negligence the third paragraph ús complete within itself, just as the allegations of specific negligence in the fifth paragraph are complete within that paragraph.

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210 S.W.2d 68, 357 Mo. 686, 1948 Mo. LEXIS 676, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-spears-v-mccullen-mo-1948.