Waller v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.

59 Mo. App. 410, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 456
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 19, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 59 Mo. App. 410 (Waller v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas 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
Waller v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co., 59 Mo. App. 410, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 456 (Mo. Ct. App. 1894).

Opinion

Gill, J.

I. Defendant’s counsel have, in a lengthy brief and argument of forty-four pages, urged [424]*424many reasons for a reversal of this judgment. To take these up and discuss them seriatim would extend this opinion beyond any reasonable limit. We shall notice the more material of these points. All the complaints relate to the court’s action in giving, refusing and modifying instructions. At the close of the evidence, thirteen instructions were asked (two offered by plaintiff and eleven by defendant, and most of them, too, quite lengthy.) The court gave the two requested by plaintiff; gave also, without change, three of those asked by defendant; and besides gave four others for defendant, though modified in some particulars, as will be seen by reference to the statement.

The case may be thus generalized: Plaintiff, while about to become a passenger on one of defendant’s trains at Higbee, and while passing over the depot platform, fell over a box and was injured. In his petition he charged, as the twq causes of this injury: First, the negligent failure of the defendant to light up the platform where passengers were in the habit of entering and leaving the trains; and, second, that defendant carelessly deposited, or permitted to be deposited,'the box or obstruction. Defendant met these allegations by a general denial coupled with a counter charge that the plaintiff was injured through and by means of his own negligence.

II. There was an absence of any testimony tending to show that any of the defendant’s servants placed the box in the way of the passengers on the platform, or that they had any prior notice, actual or constructive, of its being there. Hence at the close of the evidence, the plaintiff' offered, and the court gave, an instruction which limited the right of recovery to the alleged failure to light the platform. But, notwithstanding this absence of evidence tending to charge [425]*425the defendant with negligently placing the obstruction on the platform,, the defendant asked, and the court gave instructions on that theory of the case, and,, by these, left it to the jury to say whether or not that charge of negligence had been proved. And right here we may as well • dispose of the point in defendant’s brief that the court’s instructions were conflicting and inharmonious.

There ivas an inconsistency; but it was induced by the conduct of defendant’s counsel; was brought about by an erroneous instruction given at their request, and therefore defendant can not complain.. Defendant’s instruction numbered 2 was improperly given. By reference thereto it will be observed that the jury were, in effect, told that they should find for the defendant, unless the box or obstruction was placed on the platform by some agent or employee of the defendant, or that it had been there such a length of time as to imply notice to such servants of the defendant. This was error, and for two reasons: In the first place, as already said, there was no evidence on which to base such an instruction; and, in the second place, it was error to tell the jury that the mere existence or nonexistence of the alleged obstruction comprised the whole ease. This instruction shut out entirely the charge of the failure to light up the passenger platform, which was, indeed, the' gravamen of plaintiff’s complaint.

III. The suggestion in defendant’s brief, that plaintiff’s first instruction was erroneous, first, because it authorized a recovery for defendant’s failure to light the platform, while the petition charged the injury to be due also to an. obstruction on the platform; second, that such failure to light was not the proximaté cause of the accident; third, that the .accident did not occur on the passenger platform; and, fow-th, that it was [426]*426therein erroneously left to the jury to determine what would constitute contributory negligence, etc., áre all without merit.

The case is grounded on two causes contributing to the injury; and it has been well said that, when several proximate causes contribute to an accident, and each is an efficient cause, without the operation of which the accident would not have happened, it may be attributed to all or- any of these causes. Ring v. City of Cohoes, 77 N. Y. 83. There was here, according to plaintiff’s evidence, two efficient, proximate-causes,' both contributing to the injury inflicted. The party, therefore, who by his or its negligent act, brought about one or both of these, is liable for the injurious consequences. As was said in Banks v. Railroad, 40 Mo. App. 464: “It matters not that other concurrent causes (not arising from plaintiff’s fault) may cooperate in producing the damages, or in the aggravation thereof, the party originally moving and guilty of the negligent act which sets in motion the concurrent condition of things, is liable for the damages thus inflicted.” And in further answer to the above objection (that the failure to light the platform was not the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury) we may quote here, as in the Banks case, from the supreme court of Pennsylvania: “In determining what is the proximate cause, the true rule is, that the injury must be the natural and probable consequence of the negligence; such a consequence as, under the surrounding circumstances of the case, might and ought to have been foreseen by the wrongdoer as likely to flow from his act.” Hoag v. Railroad, 85 Pa. St. 292. It was known by the agents and servants of this defendant that baggage, freight and' express matter was likely to be lodged on this platform, and unless the platform was lighted on dark nights, it might have reasonably [427]*427been anticipated that persons coming to take passagé on defendant’s trains would probably stumble and fall over these obstructions. That such results were anticipated is manifest, for lamps were in fact provided for lighting this platform, and were fastened to the outside of the depot building; but it appears beyond question, that on this night when the plaintiff was hurt these lamps were left unlighted.

In answer to the suggestion that this injury did not occur on the platform intended for the use of passengers, it is only necessary to say that the jury so found, and that, too, on evidence strongly in favor of that position. While it is true that the local agent testified that these platform extensions, running north and south from the depot, were constructed for the purpose of affording facilities for the handling of baggage, express matter, etc., and was not intended for the use of passengers in entering into or alighting from trains, yet other evidence abundantly showed that these extensions were part and parcel of the one passenger platform along the track in front of the depot building—all used, and apparently so intended, for the accommodation of people in entering into or departing from defendant’s passenger trains.

The further suggestion that the plaintiff’s first instruction was faulty in not specifically defining contributory negligence is also without merit. By reference to this instruction, it will be seen that the right to recover on certain facts is qualified by the clause, “and without negligence on his part contributing thereto.” These general words of qualification were, under the circumstances, entirely harmless, if, indeed, they were not proper.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Payne Ex Rel. Copeland v. Davis
252 S.W. 57 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1923)
Williams v. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Co.
155 S.W. 64 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1913)
Davies v. Rose-Marshall Coal Co.
129 P. 98 (Washington Supreme Court, 1913)
Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Parmenter
170 F. 140 (Ninth Circuit, 1909)
Dutro v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.
86 S.W. 915 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1905)
Wood v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.
81 S.W. 152 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1904)
Leeds v. . New York Telephone Co.
70 N.E. 219 (New York Court of Appeals, 1904)
Doyle v. St. Louis Transit Co.
77 S.W. 471 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1903)
Lynch v. St. Louis Transit Co.
77 S.W. 100 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1903)
Horgan v. Brady
56 S.W. 294 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1900)
Herman v. St. Louis Railroad
77 Mo. App. 377 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1898)
Johnson v. Chapman
28 S.E. 744 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1897)
Laible v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad
13 A.D. 574 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1897)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
59 Mo. App. 410, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waller-v-missouri-kansas-texas-railway-co-moctapp-1894.