Turnbow ex rel. Turnbow v. Kansas City Railways Co.

211 S.W. 41, 277 Mo. 644, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 50
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedApril 4, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 211 S.W. 41 (Turnbow ex rel. Turnbow v. Kansas City Railways Co.) 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
Turnbow ex rel. Turnbow v. Kansas City Railways Co., 211 S.W. 41, 277 Mo. 644, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 50 (Mo. 1919).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, P. J.

Plaintiff, an infant boy, three years of age, sues by bis next friend to recover for the loss of both feet.

The injury is alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant in the operation of one of its street cars upon a street crossing in the city of Independence, Missouri.

Trial was had in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, at Independence, resulting in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff in the.sum of $30,000. Defendant has duly appealed.

This is the second appeal. The opinion upon the first appeal is reported in 272 Mo. 53.

No attack is made upon the sufficiency of the evidence to support a recovery. The evidence in the main is the same as upon the former appeal and is set forth in 272 Mo. at page 53 et seq. It is therefore unnecessary to restate the same here.

Plaintiff’s instruction No. P-1, which was given, is as follows:

“The court instructs the jury that if you believe and find from the evidence that on the 29th day of March, 1912, Paul Turnbow was a child about three years of age and that the said Paul Turnbow wandered or went upon Lexington Street in Independence, Missouri, and upon that part thereof east of Union Street and between the curb on the south line of Lexington Street and the car tracks of the defendant, and if you further believe and find from the evidence that at said time and place the street car in question was approaching a point opposite the place where said child was in said street, and if the jury further believe and find from the evidence that said child approached said car and came in contact therewith and his feet and legs were run over by the wheels of the hind truck thereof and [650]*650crushed and injured, so that it was necessary to amputate his feet, if you believe and find from the evidence that it was necessary to amputate them; and if the jury further believe and find from the evidence that the motorman operating said car saw, or, by the exercise of ordinary care, could have seen the said Paul Turnbow in said street and aproaching said car and in or approaching a place of imminent peril, if you believe and find from the evidence he was in said street and was approaching said car and approaching a place of imminent peril, in time, by the exercise of ordinary care and with reasonable safety to the passengers on the said car to have stopped said car and to have prevented the injuries to said Paul Turn-bow; and if you further believe and find from the evidence that said motorman could reasonably have anticipated that said child would be likely to approach and come in contact with said car and be injured thereby; and if you further believe and find from the evidence that said. motorman did not stop said car, after he saw, or by the exercise of ordinary care, could have seen said child in said street and approaching said car, if you believe and find from the evidence he was in said street and was approaching said car, and that said motorman saw, or by the exercise of ordinary care could have seen him there, and after he might reasonably have anticipated that said child would approach said car and be injured thereby, if you find that he should reasonably have so anticipated, but continued to run said car over and upon said tracks until the said Paul Turnbow was injured, as aforesaid; and if you further believe and find from the evidence that it was negligence upon the part of said motorman to so continue to run said car, if you believe and find from the evidence he did so continue to run it, and that the injuries to the said Paul Turnbow, if any, were caused bv said negligence of said motorman, if any, in so running said car, then your verdict should be for the plaintiff and against the defendant.”

[651]*651Instruction No. 0-1 given by the court of its own motion is as follows:

“The court instructs you that it is your duty in considering the evidence, deliberating upon and determining the facts in this case, to first decide upon the question as to whether under all the facts and circumstances there is or is not any negligence upon the part of defendant’s motorman, as defined to you by other instruction. Until this question of negligence has been determined by you, you have no right to take into consideration the nature, character or extent of the alleged injuries to plaintiff, or the amount, if any, that the plaintiff is entitled to recover, because of such injuries. If the plaintiff is not entitled to recover, that is, if he has not shown to your reasonable satisfaction by the greater weight of the credible testimony upon the question of liability that he should recover at your hands, then you should not and must not in your deliberation at all consider to what extent, if any, he has been injured.
“Plaintiff was permitted to exhibit the stumps of his legs to you in order that you might see and consider them in determining the nature and extent of his injuries. You should not be influenced by the nature and extent of plaintiff’s injuries in deciding whether or not defendant is liable for said injuries, as explained to you in these instructions.
“Neither passion, prejudice nor sympathy should influence you in any manner in deciding this case, for it is your sworn duty to try this case and decide it according to the evidence and the instructions.”

When the ease was called for trial appellant filed a motion to quash the panel of eighteen jurors, summoned to appear at the Independence Division of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, for the reason that said jury “has not been drawn, selected, summoned and qualified in the manner and way provided by law. ’ ’

The panel thus sought to be quashed was summoned to appear before the said circuit court at the court [652]*652bouse in Independence, Missouri. This seems to have been the established practice in that regard, and had never before been questioned until the motion to quash was filed.

By reading what was said then and what is now said in appellant’s brief we gather the idea that appellant’s objection to the panel was that it was not a part of a large panel which had originally been summoned to appear at one of the divisions of the circuit court of said county, there to be distributed in part to each division of said circuit court (including the nine divisions sitting’ at Kansas City and the one division sitting at Independence) as needed for jury use in the respective divisions — (as is provided, according to appellant’s contention, by Sections 7318 and 7323, Revised Statutes 1909).

The court overruled the motion to'quash and thereupon plaintiff’s counsel made the following request:

“.Mr. Brewster: In view of Mr. Dryden’s position that the eighteen jurors constituting this present panel are not properly drawn, or drawn according to law, and in view of the fact that the objection has never been made in any other' case, and the fact’that I represent a minor some six years of age, I am willing to try this ease so that there will be no question of any kind left in the record. I therefore ask the court, in view of Mr. Dryden’s motion, to send over to Kansas City and have a panel of eighteen men called to try this case.”

Thereupon, and apparently with an intent to keep the above question out of the case, the court ordered the sheriff to bring twenty-three jurors from the large panel which had been originally summoned to appear at Kansas City.

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Bluebook (online)
211 S.W. 41, 277 Mo. 644, 1919 Mo. LEXIS 50, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turnbow-ex-rel-turnbow-v-kansas-city-railways-co-mo-1919.