174 Mo. App. 5 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1913
Plaintiff was a passenger upon defendant’s north hound street car proceeding along Main between Twelfth and Eleventh streets, in Kansas City, Missouri. He alleges that he was standing in the rear vestibule and, after notifying the persons in charge that he desired to alight at Eleventh street, went to the edge of the vestibule and stood near the steps leading from the car waiting for it to stop1 at Eleventh. The door of the car leading from the vestibule to the street was one that folded in the middle, and, when folded, swung, on hinges at the southeast corner of the car, around against the end of the car and was there fastened or held in place by a hook over the door. Across this door, thus folded and in place, was a brass rod or handhold fastened to the door just below the glass therein, which rod was for the use of passengers in boarding, or alighting from, the car. Plaintiff claims that while standing thus at the edge of the platform, waiting for the car to stop, he took hold of this rod; that the catch or fastening, which held the door in its place against the end of the car, gave way allowing the door to swing around toward
The petition specified the negligence thus: “That as plaintiff stood in the position aforesaid grasping said handhold, said door through the negligence of defendant in insecurely latching and fastening it became unlatched, unfastened and loosed so that said door swung outward toward the exit and plaintiff was thereby thrown, hurled and permitted to fall to the street, etc.”
The answer contained a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence. Defendant introduced testimony tending to show that plaintiff was seated in the car and suddenly jumped up, ran out to the platform, seized the rod in question and swung his body off the car in- an attempt to alight while the car was in the middle of the block and going about six miles an hour; that the great weight and swing of his body pulled the door loose from its fastening and it thereupon swung outward causing him to fall.
The jury found a verdict for plaintiff and assessed his damages at $2000.
The two points relied upon by defendant are, first, that plaintiff failed to prove the negligence charged in the petition, and, second, that the verdict is excessive. As to the first point, defendant’s position is that the plaintiff does not rely on a statement, of general negligence but, having chosen to specify particular negligence, he must prove that negligence or fail in his case. This is no' doubt a correct rule. But does it apply to this case, or, if so, is there an entire failure of proof as to the specific negligence charged? Defendant’s theory is that the specific allegation of negligence is “in insecurely latching and fastening the door” and that, as there was no testimony given by any witness who says he saw or examined the door and found
“But some catastrophes are of a nature such as carry, in á mere statement of their occurrence, an im
“Thus it was held in Mooney v. Lumber Co. (1891), 154 Mass. 407, that the starting, without apparent cause, of the carriage of a . sawing machine, when left at rest, with ‘the lever locked which was used to start and stop it,’ whereby the plaintiff was injured, constituted evidence to support a finding that there was negligence in the construction or condition of the machine with reference to its reasonable safety. [Donahue v. Brown (1891) 154 Mass. 21.
“Many other illustrations might be cited were it necessary. The principle that underlies them is that. negligence, like any ultimate fact in issue, may be established as well by reasonable inferences from other facts as by more direct means of proof. [Barnowski v. Helson (1891), 89 Mich. 523.]” .
The Blanton case was one between a servant and master where the inference of negligence is harder to draw than in the case before us which involves the care owed to a passenger by a common carrier. There was sufficient proof of negligence to go to the jury. And, of course, the question whether plaintiff was thrown off while standing on the platform, or was attempting to jump from the car while in motion and fell on account of the unusual pull or weight put on the door, was a question for the jury, and not for us, to decide. Whether the door by coming loose, caused plaintiff to fall out from the car, his momentum in-doing so pulling the door shut after him, or whether his weight, in voluntarily swinging from the car, jerked the door loose would be -difficult to decide even by onlookers and was, therefore, clearly a question for the jury.