Wilson v. Tonsing

375 S.W.2d 140, 1964 Mo. LEXIS 882
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 13, 1964
DocketNo. 48931
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 375 S.W.2d 140 (Wilson v. Tonsing) 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
Wilson v. Tonsing, 375 S.W.2d 140, 1964 Mo. LEXIS 882 (Mo. 1964).

Opinions

BARRETT, Commissioner.

On November 22, 1958, Arline Marie Wilson, driving a 1958 Nash Metropolitan automobile east on Gravois, was involved in a collision with a 1949 Austin automobile driven north on River Des Peres Drive by Amos H. Tonsing. To recover $15,000 (damages for her personal injuries and $745 ■(the agreed damage to her automobile) for ■personal property loss Mrs. Wilson instituted this suit against Mr. Tonsing. In •addition to his answer to her suit Mr. Tonsing filed a counterclaim against Mrs. Wilson in which he sought to recover $164.-50 damages for the injury to his Austin automobile. Upon the trial of the cause a jury found against Mrs. Wilson on her cause of action and in favor of Tonsing on his counterclaim and awarded him $164.-50. Tonsing filed no after-trial motions, the trial court overruled Mrs. Wilson’s motion for a new trial and she has appealed to this court. Mrs. Wilson makes and has briefed two assignments of error; first, that the court erred in giving instruction 4 which hypothesized his recovery on the counterclaim, and, second, that the court erred in admitting the defendant’s testimony that with his brakes and wheels locked it would have been almost impossible for him to have swerved his automobile.

In this posture, since it is necessary that Mrs. Wilson be granted a new trial as to the respondent’s $164.50 counterclaim before she is again entitled to try and submit her $15,745 claim, the question of this court’s appellate jurisdiction was suggested to the parties on oral argument. Specifically, the problem is whether “the amount in dispute” (Const.Mo., Art. 5, Sec. 3, V.A.M.S.) upon this appeal is a sum in excess of $15,000. V.A.M.S.Supp., § 477-040. It is not as if both parties had appealed, thus directly bringing “in dispute” the entire cause, both the plaintiff’s claim and the defendant’s counterclaim. Schmidt v. Morival Farms, (Mo.) 240 S.W.2d 952. Also the case is not as if the trial court had sustained the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial, thereby reinstating her claim. Harris v. Rowden, (Mo.) 305 S.W.2d 25. Neither is it an instance in which on the defendant’s appeal his counterclaim may be disregarded. Nickels v. Borgmeyer, (Mo.) 256 S.W.2d 560. There is also the difference in this case and Anthony v. Morrow, (Mo.App.) 306 S.W.2d 581, 583, that here the plaintiff in her notice has specifically appealed as the person aggrieved by the “verdict and judgment in favor of defendant and against plaintiff on plaintiff’s cause of action and in favor of defendant and against plaintiff on defendant’s counterclaim.” Furthermore in his brief here the respondent Tonsing makes and urges the assignment that Mrs. Wilson failed to make a case under the humanitarian doctrine — the only ground upon which her cause was submitted— “consequently, any error in instruction or evidence would be immaterial.” And of course, with the issues on appeal in this posture, the question of whether plaintiff made a submissible case is basic, “inherent in every case,” and is always an opemques[142]*142tion when raised by the defendant on the plaintiff’s appeal. Lilly v. Boswell, 362 Mo. 444, 454, 242 S.W.2d 73, 77; Hart v. Midkiff, (Mo.) 321 S.W.2d 500, 505; Carter v. Matthey Laundry & Dry Cleaning Co., (Mo.) 350 S.W.2d 786, 792. Thus there has been challenged and brought into the appeal, in addition to the defendant-respondent’s counterclaim of $164.50, the plaintiff’s claim for $15,745 and the claims thus aggregated and necessary to he considered in disposition of this appeal involve ,an amount within this court’s appellate jurisdiction. Annotation 58 A.L.R.2d 84, 91; Albers Milling Co. v. Carney, (Mo.App.) 335 S.W.2d 207. In essence, in so far as the jurisdictional problem is concerned, this case is governed in principle by the recent en banc decision of Endermuehle v. Smith, (Mo.) 372 S.W.2d 464 and as a matter of fact accounts for this the second reassignment of this cause. Appositely and in summary the court there said:

“The ‘monetary’ effect of the judgment appealed from was to deny plaintiff, appellant herein, the relief she had sought, that is, a judgment in money amount $22,550 in her favor and against defendant and to grant defendant, respondent herein, the relief she had sought, that is, a judgment in money amount $100 in her favor and against plaintiff. Although in this case and in other cases of like nature, only one or the other, a plaintiff or a defendant, can ever recover (Hoefel v. Hammel, Mo.App., 228 S.W.2d 402; Jameson v. Fox, 364 Mo. 237, 260 S.W.2d 507; Willibald Schaefer Co. v. Blanton Co., Mo.App., 264 S.W.2d 920; Hamilton Fire Ins. Co. v. Cervantes, Mo.App., 278 S.W.2d 20; Smith v. Rodick, Mo.App., 286 S.W.2d 73; Stonefield v. Flynn, Mo.App., 347 S.W.2d 472), nevertheless, in this case it is seen that, actually, the money amounts of the appellate-jurisdictional decisive ‘deny and grant’ monetary impact upon appellant of the app'ealed-from judgment in defendant-respondent’s favor and against plaintiff-appellant are in aggregate amount $22,650.”

Mrs. Wilson’s right to recover was submitted upon the hypothesis of the humanitarian doctrine: that as she drove eastwardly on Gravois and its intersection with River Des Peres she came into a position of peril of which Tonsing, as he proceeded north on River Des Peres, was or should have become aware and that thereafter, in the highest degree of care and with safety to himself, could or should “have turned or swerved his automobile” and thereby have avoided colliding with plaintiff. Also in this instruction the jury was informed that plaintiff could recover upon the hypothesis of this instruction even though “Arline Marie Wilson was guilty of negligence which directly contributed to cause her injuries.” Tonsing’s evidence tended to show that as he approached Gra-vois and was about “six cars back” the stop sign was red and so he slowed down to a speed of 5 or 10 miles an hour. As he approached the intersection the light changed to green and he proceeded on at an increased speed of about 20 miles an hour. According to him the automobiles in the traffic lane to his left also started forward and after he had traveled about 4 feet beyond the curbline the plaintiff’s automobile suddenly and without warning came through a red light into the intersection ahead of his car and despite the application of his brakes his Austin “slid 14 feet” to a stop but into the side of Mrs. Wilson’s automobile. Upon the evidence favorable to him Tonsing submitted his right to recover on his counterclaim against Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
375 S.W.2d 140, 1964 Mo. LEXIS 882, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-tonsing-mo-1964.