161 Mo. 411 | Mo. | 1901
This action is brought by the plaintiff, Otto Anderson, a minor, by his next friend, against the Union Terminal Railroad company and the Kansas City Suburban Belt Railroad company, for personal injuries received by him on December 1, 1895, on Ohio avenue between Wood street and Armstrong avenue, in Kansas City, Kansas. The'injury, it is claimed, was occasioned through the alleged negligence of defendants in placing upon and maintaining in said street a pile of cinders and ashes. The cause was tried before a jury, and plaintiff recovered a judgment of $6,500. Erom this judgment defendants appealed.
The defendants answer separately; their answers, however, set up the same defenses. After admitting the incorporation of defendants and generally denying the other allegations of the petition, the answers averred in substance: first, that the track was laid under ordinance 2164, of Kansas City, Kansas, that it was new, unfinished and incomplete and necessary to be ballasted and surfaced, and to accomplish such purpose, the Union Terminal Railroad company, a short time before the injury in question, caused to be scattered beside and along the track on Ohio avenue, cinders which were afterward used for ballasting and surfacing 'Same, but that the same at no time constituted an obstruction to travel; second, the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, in that he negligently approached so near the track, without looking to see, or listening to hear, whether the train was approaching;
Briefly stated, the records present substantially the following case:
The Terminal company constructed and owned a railroad trade running at grade, east and west, in the center of Ohio avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. A double-track cable street railway was operated upon James street, which runs north and south, crossing Ohio avenue at right angles. The cable cars crossed the Terminal company’s track at grade, about every two minutes. The next parallel street west of James is Wood, or Eirst street, upon which was operated at grade, the tracks of the Kansas City, Northwestern and Chicago, Great Western railroads. The next parallel street to Wood was Armstrong avenue, or Second street. Between Armstrong avenue and Wood street, the terminal company maintains a track on the south side of the street. The Suburban company was organized on July 13, 1892, by a consolidation, under the laws of this State, of the Consolidated Terminal Eailway company, and the Kansas City Suburban Belt Eailway Company.
Prior to the consolidation, however, the Terminal company leased its road to the Consolidated Terminal Eailway Company, and the latter agreed to maintain and operate the same. The evidence discloses that the railroad in question was constructed and put in operation in 1892 or 1893. The ordinance, by virtue of which defendants occupied the street with a railroad, contained a grant to the Terminal company and its assigns, of the right to maintain and operate a road upon condition that the railroad company “shall plank and maintain all crossings of streets and alleys now laid out, or that may
It seems that this condition of the franchise was never complied with. A day or two before the accident in question, the Suburban company hauled a lot of cinders and dumped them at the side of the track, on Ohio avenue, between Wood street and Armstrong avenue, and permitted them to remain in sloping piles just as dumped from the train. Although this work was done by the Suburban company, yet it appears that the expenses thereof were charged up to and paid by the Terminal company. There was evidence tending to show that it was negligence in defendants to leave the cinders in the condition in which they were placed. It further appears that the plaintiff, a lad between nine and ten years of age, lived on the west side of Wood street, about fifty feet from the corner of Ohio avenue; the lot, however, extended to the alley between Wood street and Armstrong avenue. He had been down watching some boys skating on a pond a short distance east of James street, and left there for home, intending to go in at the alley. He passed along the south side of Ohio avenue until just after he crossed Wood street, when he started to cross Ohio avenue to the opening of the alley leading to his home. When he left the pond the Suburban train was switching in that vicinity, It was the custom for trains to stop before crossing the railroad track on James and Wood streets to enable the trainmen to go
The court below' permitted plaintiff, against defendant’s ■objection, to read in evidence section 3 of ordinance 833 of Kansas City, Kansas, making it unlawful to deposit cinders in the street, and ordinance 522, prohibiting the backing of a train without a watchman at the end, requiring the ringing of the bell on all moving trains, and limiting the rate of speed to six miles an hour, without any averment in the petition of the acceptance of said ordinances by the defendants. The court, however, at the close of the evidence, withdrew said ordinances by
The admission of the ordinances under the rulings of this court in the above cases, was undoubtedly erroneous. But as the objectionable evidence had been eliminated from the case, by instruction, the error in its admission was cured. It is well settled in this State, that where erroneous evidence has been admitted during the trial, the error in its admission may be cured, by afterward withdrawing the objectionable evidence from the jury. [Stavinow v. Home Ins. Co., 43 Mo. App. 513; O’Mellia v. Railroad, 115 Mo. 205; McGinniss v. Loring, 126 Mo. 404.] In Stephens v. H. & St. J. Ry. Co., 96 Mo. 207, an action for personal injuries sustained by an employee while acting as track-repairer, it was held that the court may exclude by instructions improper evidence that has reached the jury, and when this is done, the fact that such objectionable evidence was heard by the jury, will not operate as a reversal of the judgment. Particularly is that so, where nothing appears to indicate that the verdict was in any way affected by it.
Miss Head was introduced as witness by defendant and testified in effect that about six or seven weeks before the trial she met the plaintiff on his way home from school and had a conversation with him touching the accident; that she inquired of him how the accident occurred, and he replied that he was jumping on the car and stumbled and was thrown under in some way, and his leg cut off. Subsequently, on cross-ex-
It is also claimed that the trial court committed error in refusing instruction numbered 3 asked for by defendant, the Terminal company, in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence, the point being that the latter company was not guilty of any negligence, as the cinders in question were actually placed upon the street by the Suburban company. By its franchise it became obligatory in the Terminal company to maintain its track for the period of twenty years, and as a condition to the exercise of the franchise, it was required to plank the track between and outside of the rails. In leasing to the Consolidated Terminal company, which is one of the constituents of the Suburban company, the latter company agreed to maintain the track, but by a paragraph in the lease, the Terminal company renounced all its duties to the public, thereby vitiating the lease. Consequently, the lessor remains liable, for the acts of the lessee. Aside from this, however, the answer of the Terminal company admits that it placed the cinders on the street for the purpose of ballasting and surfacing up the track, and by an admission made during the trial it appeared that the work was actually done by the Suburban company but paid for by the Terminal company. Under these circumstances, the Terminal company, which by its answer says that it placed the cinders on the street for its own purpose, is undoubtedly liable.
It is next insisted that the act of plaintiff, having the intelligence, experience, knowledge and general capacity he is shown by the evidence to possess, in approaching so near the track without looking back to see if the train was coming, and
The rule seems to be well settled in this State, that a child is not to be .judged by the strict standard of an adult, neither is he to be charged with contributory negligence, if he acted as might reasonably be expected from one of his age and capacity. [Boland v. Ry. Co., 36 Mo. 484; McCarthy v. Ry. Co., 92 Mo. 536; Eswin v. Ry. Co., 96 Mo. 290; Burger v. Ry. Co., 112 Mo. 238; Lynch v. Ry. Co., 112 Mo. 420; Schmitz v. Ry. Co., 119 Mo. 256; Donoho v. Iron Works, 15 Mo. 401; Riley v. Ry. Co., 68 Mo. App. 652; Van Natta v. Ry. Co., 133 Mo. 13; Anderson v. Ry. Co., 81 Mo. App. 116.]
In Burger v. Mo. Pac. Ry. Co., 112 Mo. (l. c.) 249, Macfarlane, J., in speaking of contributory negligence, as applied to a boy between nine and ten years of age, said: “Common experience and observation teaches us that due care
We have been referred by the learned counsel for defendants to a line of authorities of which Payne v. Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, 136 Mo. 562, is a type, in which it is claimed that the Court in Banc held that in the case of a boy about the plaintiffs age, with intelligence and knowledge of the danger connected with crossing railroad tracks, is chargeable with contributory negligence, just as an adult person would be. Judge Sherwood, who wrote the opinion in the Payne case, never contemplated a departure from the rule laid down in Burger v. Railway, supra. These cases merely decide that a child may so act, notwithstanding his youth, as to be guilty of contributory negligence, as a matter of law. But they do not decide that the child’s age is not to be taken into consideration, even if he was at the time of the accident, a bright, intelligent and active child. These cases simply hold that, under the peculiar facts of the particular case, considering the child’s age and intelligence, he did not act as one of his age and capacity might reasonably have been expected to act. We are of the opinion that under the facts in this case, the question whether plaintiff used such care as ought reasonably to be expected from one of his age and capacity was properly submitted to the jury by the instruction complained of.
The further objection is made that the jury were told that plaintiff could recover if this negligence “was the cause in producing the injury” in question. While the term “proximate cause” is the more common expression to be found in similar instructions, and is more accurate in phraseology, it is not perceived how the jury could have- been misled by the language used.
It is also urged that the court below erred in giving plaintiff’s third instruction defining negligence. This instruction is as follows: “Negligence is the want of ordinary care, and ordinary care is that degree of care which ought reasonably to be expected from a person of ordinary prudence in view of all the circumstances developed in evidence. If either defendant failed to exercise ordinary care in placing and maintaining said pile of cinders in question, then it was guilty of negligence.” The specific criticism to this instruction is that instead of the words “in view of all of the circumstances,” there should have been used “under like circumstances.” We do not think there is any merit in this objection. There is no substantial difference in the two expressions. The same idea is expressed by the words in either case. The care which ought reasonably to be expected of a person under like circumstances, simply means, under the circumstances shown in evidence.
The plaintiff’s instructions as a whole, when taken in connection with those given for defendants, fairly presented the law of the ease to the jury, and when so considered, are in harmony with the controlling decisions of this court and furnish to defendant no just ground of complaint.
The court’s refusal to give defendants’ instruction numbered 12, as follows, is next assigned as error:
“The court instructs the jury that if the pile of cinders over and upon which Otto Anderson says he fell at the time of this injury, was so high and open to view that it could easily be seen by one of his age and experience, approaching said pile while facing it, and that Otto Anderson was going in the direction of said pile until within about five steps thereof, and then turned around and went backwards and fell over said pile and rolled under the cars, your verdict must be for defendants.”
This instruction is subject to the criticism that it is not predicated upon the facts of the case. There was no evidence that the plaintiff was going toward the cinder pile facing it, and then turned around and went toward it backward. Bfe may have been going by, or at the side of the cinder pile, but there is not the slightest evidence that he faced it, and while facing it turned around to look away from it. The evidence shows that plaintiff was not aware of the presence of the cinder pile. Therefore, he had the right to assume that the cinder pile was not there. Again, it may be said that even though plaintiff knew of the existence of the cinder pile, it can not be said that he was guilty of negligence per se, in not seeing it. [Buesching v. St. Louis Gas Company, 73 Mo. 219; Barr v. Kansas City, 121 Mo. 22.] Moreover, this instruction requires of plaintiff the same care as an adult, instead of submitting to the jury the question whether in view of his age and capacity, he exercised the care that ought reasonably to be expected of one of like age and capacity. Besides, it was directly in conflict with defendant’s thirteenth and seventeenth instructions, leaving it to the jury to say whether the plaintiff’s age and capacity was such as to require of him the acts specified in the instruction.
These instructions read as follows:
“11. The court instructs the jury that a railroad track is in itself a warning of danger, and it became Otto Anderson’s duty when he approached the track in question to remain far enough away from the track while trains were approaching or passing to be safe from collision with the cars and from stumbling over obstructions which might cause him to fall, and if the jury believe from the evidence that Otto Anderson came near defendant’s track while the train was approaching and stumbled over a pile of cinders which caused him to fall under the wheels when he either did see or might have seen the train coming by looking, or heard it by listening, and avoided the said pile of cinders by looking, your verdict must be for the defendants.
“16. If Otto Anderson was of such age and experience with reference to the movement of trains and cars as to know the dangers incident thereto, and if he went upon the track or near the cars for the purpose of getting upon the same, or passing in front or around the same while in motion, he was guilty of contributory negligence, and the plaintiff can not recover in this action, notwithstanding you may believe the defendants were guilty of negligence with reference to the speed of its train, the allowing of cinders to remain along its track, or in the running of its train without a watchman on the front car or in any other respect.”
The observations made by us in disposing of defendant’s refused instruction numbered 12, are equally applicable to and disposes of this point. Moreover, by defendant’s instructions
Objection is also made to the remarks of Mr. Hagerman, counsel for plaintiff, in his closing argument to the jury, in which he, referring to the franchise granted to the defendants, said over defendants’ objection. “They were lawbreakers from the jump.” As all- that counsel said in regard to the matter does not appear from the record, we can not say there was any abuse of discretion by the trial court. There is certainly nothing in the brief reference to this subject in the record that would justify the reversal of a judgment otherwise properly obtained.
The defendants finally make the point that plaintiff, having brought suit on statutory or ordinance negligence, should not have been permitted to recover for common-law negligence, as the latter was a different cause of action, and if recovery was permissible for it, such could have been the case only on an amended petition. Unfortunately for defendant’s contention, the petition is not based upon the ordinance. The averments in relation to the ordinance are-merely cumulative. Eliminate all reference to the ordinance, and enough remains to state a good cause of action of common-law negligence. The petition, in part, reads as follows: “At the side of and between the said tracks, and in said city, upon the said street, the defendants negligently placed, and on December the 7th, 1895, negligently maintained a pile of cinders and ashes, constituting an obstruction to the travel upon said street. Said obstruction made the street unsafe for travel, and directly violated the terms of section 3 of ordinance 883 of this city.” The above allegations were followed immediately by the proper averments of the ordinance. Manifestly, this paragraph of the petition states a good
As was said in Werner v. Railroad, 81 Mo. 368, “it is not a case of variance, but an instance in which negligence of the character alleged is proven, but not to the extent alleged, but sufficient to support the action.”
The ease at bar is unlike, and clearly distinguishable from Hansberger v. Railroad, 43 Mo. 196; Holliday v. Jackson, 21 Mo. App. 660; City of Kansas v. Hart (Kan.), 57 Pac. Rep. 938; Railroad v. Wyler, 158 U. S. 285, cited by counsel for defendants.
The case seems to have been fairly tried and there being no error substantially affecting the merits, the judgment will be affirmed.