Williams v. St. Louis Public Service Co.

253 S.W.2d 97, 363 Mo. 625, 1952 Mo. LEXIS 685
Supreme Court of Missouri·Decided November 10, 1952·No. 43123·Published·Cited by 46 cases

Opinions

[628] DALTON, J.

This is^an action for damages for personal injuries. Plaintiff was a passenger in one of defendant’s streetcars. She fell and sustained fractures of the bones of her right arm and wrist as the streetcar moved along East Hodiamont Avenue in the city of St. Louis. The cause was submitted to a jury under the res ipsa loquitur doctrine. Yerdict and.judgment were for plaintiff for $4950.00 and defendant took an appeal to the St. Louis Court of Appeals. That court ordered the judgment reversed and the cause remanded on the ground that the doctrine of - res ipsa loquitur was not applicable under the evidence and that hearsay evidence had beeen improperly admitted. Williams v. St. Louis Public Service Co. (Mo. App.), 245 S. W. (2d) 659. The cause has been transferred to this court and we shall review the record as on original appeal. Art. V, Sec. 10, Const, of Mo. 1945.

[629] Error is assigned (1) on the giving of Instructions 1 and 5; (2) on the admission of certain evidence; and (3) on an alleged excessive verdict. Instruction 1 submitted a finding under the res ipsa loquitur doctrine that as plaintiff was walking to the rear of the car “* * * defendant’s streetcar was started in motion and that thereafter it jerked or lurched in an extraordinary and unusual manner and that as a direct result thereof plaintiff was thrown forward and to the floor of said streetcar and thereby injured, « « #

Appellant contends the court erred in “submitting plaintiff’s case under the res ipsa loquitur doctrine for the reason that the plaintiff’s pleadings and evidence showed the alleged specific negligence of defendant which caused her injury and plaintiff’s case should have been submitted to the jury, if at all, on such specific negligence. ’ ’

The petition charged that'while plaintiff was walking to the rear of the streetcar “defendant negligently caused and permitted said streetcar to suddenly check its speed and to receive an extraordinary, unusual jerk, lurch and shock whereby plaintiff was caused to be thrown to the floor thereof with much force and violence and to sustain the serious and permanent injuries * *

Appellant says “the plaintiff’s petition did not sound in general negligence” but alleged specific negligence in permitting the streetcar “to suddenly check its speed.” It is apparent that appellant has seized upon and has emphasized only a part of [99] the allegation. It has divided the sentence, ignored part of its content and failed to consider the allegation of negligence as a whole as it appears in the petition. The allegation of negligence is hot limited to the operation of the streetcar or to an act of its operator. Considered as a whole the allegation sufficiently charges general negligence under the res ipsa loquitur doctrine. It sufficiently charges “an unusual occurrence with attending circumstances, the physical cause of plaintiff’s injury, sufficient to justify an inference of some kind of negligence for which defendant should be held responsible, but insufficient to point to the specific negligent act or omission, the legal cause of the injury.’ Boulos v. Kansas City Public Service Co., 359 Mo. 763, 223 S.W. (2d) 446, 450.

Did plaintiff’s evidence disclose the specific negligence which caused her injury? Plaintiff testified: “Well, I got on the car and I paid my fare and started back to take a seat. On my way back, when the car started up and by the time I got middleways between the front door and the exit door, all of a sudden the car gave a jerk and it jerked me back and it threw me flat out on my arm like this (illustrating’.) Q. - Did you fall backwards or forwards? A. Forwards. * * * I just fell flat out on the floor in the aisle; I did, yes. Q. You were walking at the time that happened? [630] A. Yes, sir. Q. And the streetcar was in motion at that time? A. It was. Q. Is that right? A. It was. Q. You don’t know what the traffic conditions were outside, or anything about that. A. No; I wasn’t looking at that * * * I didn’t realize my arm was broke until we had rode from where I had fell almost to Hamilton-Avenue. My arm began to swell up and pain.” She said that the streetcar had started up and proceeded about the length of a couple of automobiles, and. there was a jerk, “just a hard jerk: throwed me out of balance, off my feet. * * * The way I noticed it it seemed to slow and give a sudden jerk.”

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Williams v. St. Louis Public Service Co., 253 S.W.2d 97, 363 Mo. 625, 1952 Mo. LEXIS 685 (Mo. 1952).

253 S.W.2d 97 (Williams v. St. Louis Public Service Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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