Action for damages for personal injuries. Yerdict and judgment for plaintiff; but set aside by the trial court on defendant’s motion and judgment entered.for defendant in accordance with its motion for a directed verdict. Plaintiff appealed and the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded with directions to reinstate the verdict upon compliance by plaintiff with an order of remittitur. (
The questions for decision on the merits are whether plaintiff made a case for the jury and whether Instruction No. 1 was erroneous. We must also determine, what is preserved for appellate review when a defendant’s motion for judgment in accordance with his motion for directed verdict is sustained and its motion for new trial is overruled.
After verdict and judgment for plaintiff, defendant filed'a motion to set aside verdict and judgment and to have judgment entered in, accordance with its motion for a directed verdict, and in the alternative a motion for new trial in the event the motion to set aside was not sustained. (See Sec. 847.113 Mo. R. S. A.) The motion for new trial alleged error in plaintiff’s instructions. The Court sustained the motion to set aside and entered judgment for defendant. It also overruled defendant’s motion for new trial.
It was proper for the Court to act on the motion for new trial by overruling it, after sustaining the motion to set aside the verdict and judgment. It was its duty to dispose of it in some manner because all after trial motions should be decided together. The motion for new trial is the basic after trial motion under our Code to preserve trial errors for appellate review; and when disposed of makes the judgment (against which it is directed) final. [See’s. 847.116 and 847.118 Mo. R. S. A.; Sup. Ct. Rule 3.24; Seabaugh’s Dependents v. Garver Lumber Co.,
.We further hold that when, as here,.the motion to set aside is sustained and the motion for new trial overruled (or if it is sustained in the alternative) and the plaintiff appeals from the judgment entered against him, then the defendant may in his brief allege error in instructions or other procedural matters raised in his motion for new trial. This is because the appellate court may consider everything preserved in the record to determine the proper disposition to be made of the ease. [See Caddell v. Gulf, M. & O. R. Co., 217 S. W. (2d). l. c. 756-759, which shows that this construction is in harmony with decisions under the old Code.] . Section 847.140 gives the appellate court complete authority to consider all of these questions (raised in either motion) and to decide them as it concludes the trial court should have decided them for the purpose of giving or directing the entry of the correct judgment required to properly dispose of the case. This gives effect to the spirit of the Code, by construing it “to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action” (Sec. 847.2 Mo. R. S. A.) ; and is also within the letter thereof as we have applied it by adopting Rules 3.23 and 3.24. We will, therefore, determine both the question of whether defendant urns'entitled to a directed verdict and, if not, the .question of whether it should have a new trial because of error in instructions.
Plaintiff was injured while starting to cross the playing field at Sportsman’s .Park in St. Louis after attending a baseball .game between St. Louis and Brooklyn. The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the Court of. Appeals (
*998 George Schroeder, manager of defendant’s cushion department, brought the boys into the park under the following circumstances. He needed boys to pick up cushions after each game, and made arrangements for about twenty-five negro boys between fourteen and eighteen years of age to be admitted through an employee’s gate near the left field corner about the 7th or 8th inning of each game. He issued special cards to them and put their names on a list, which was left at the gate. The watchman there knew most of them, and would let them in. The number of the boys actually used each day depended upon the size of the. crowd; but there were eight or nine regular boys who were used every day. They knew they would work so they would start as soon as the crowd left the stands, beginning by taking the cushions out of the left field wing of the grandstand. The other boys would wait until Mr. Schroeder came around to see if he would need them. Immediately after each game, he would go to one of the main entrances and watch the crowd to see they did not carry away any of the cushions. The boys would wait for Mm in the left field area. When there was a large crowd he would Ibe likely to use all of the boys, and on the day plaintiff was injured there was a full capacity crowd. Apparently when plaintiff was injured the crowd was still coming out of the stands and the work of picking up cushions had not yet started. Schroeder said he was at the entrance about fifteen minutes before he came to meet the boys. At that time he found plaintiff there injured, and being attended by ■a nurse on duty for defendant.
Schroeder said that he made no arrangements for supervision of the boys before he met them. He testified as follows concerning his knowledge of their activities prior to starting work.
“Q. What have you seen them do, Mr. Schroeder? A. I have never seen them out amongst the crowds pushing one another around, but I have seen them, like young fellows will do, playing around with one another.
“Q. Pushing each other around? A. A little, but it wouldn’t be any really rough wrestling or anything like that.
“Q. Anybody hit at one another or kind of push one another? A. Might do something like that, yes.
“Q. How many times have you seen them do that before this October I, 1946? A. Well, I wouldn’t know exactly. I was there a few times, I guess, when I saw them do things like that. . . .
“Q. Have you ever cautioned them against doing that? A. Well, I have a time or two, yes.
“Q. You mean sometimes when you see them engaging in this, in these activities you have described, you don’t warn them and sometimes you do? Is that what you meant by your answer? A. It is usually at the time they start picking up cushions and I tell them, *999 let’s start working, and that breaks it np. . . . Any time I have seen them I warned them to quit it.”
Defendant contends that this evidence was not sufficient to show notice to defendant of such rough activities as would create a condition dangerous to its patrons so as to place on it the duty to furnish supervision over them. Plaintiff’s position, at least in the theory of its main instruction, seems to be that assembling such a number of boys of their age at such a place would of itself (because of the natural tendency of boys to engage in rough play) require the duty of supervision.
“The care required*of the proprietor of a place of public amusement is that which is reasonably adapted to the character of the exhibitions given, the amusements offered, the places to which patrons resort, and also in some cases, the customary conduct of spectators of such exhibitions, . . . care commensurate with the particu-
lar conditions and circumstances involved in the given case.” Berberet v. Electric Park Amusement Co.,
The last sentence is too broadly stated as a general proposition. Nevertheless, proprietors of a place of public amusement may not, without liability, permit activities of third persons, which are dangerous to patrons, to continue, after they know or by the exercise of reasonable care could have known of them, when by the exercise of reasonable care they could have been able to protect patrons therefrom by controlling or preventing such activities. [See American Law Institute Restatement of Torts, See. 348.] Defendant says that
*1000
the evidence does not show that it could havé. discovered any dangerous activities of the boys in time, to have protected plaintiff from them,, arguing: that they were so spontaneous and sudden in-their commencement and effect-that there was. no time to-.even, warn plaintiff after they began. Defendant cites-eases, such as Whitfield v. Cox, (Va.)
-.Defendant says that to hold-it liable herein-would'require it to furnish supervision for all groups of boys attending games, even- including Boy Scouts, Sunday-School classes-and,similar’organizations. Here again: defendant does not. distinguish--between occasional attendance of various groups of boys at games and-observed-improper conduct-of a regular group brought in every day by it to- serve-its own .purposes. Plaintiff, does not base her ■ claim, on respondeat superior .on the.theory that the boys.were defendant’s:employees, although the regular-boys who knew they would work every'day. were perhaps at least casual workers. Her theory of liability is that, by bringing these boys into the park after every game- and requiring them to assemble and remain,-without any supervision, or regulation as to their conduct, in an area through which many patrons 'usually passed to leave, the park, it. created a condition dangerous to. them because of "the activities in which these-boys'customarily engaged. Sin'ce we find the evidence sufficient to-show defendant’s knowledge of usual activities:of this particular- <group -of boys while assembled :at this place after games, which would be likely to cause injury to-patrons, we hold;that plaintiff made a jury case on this'theory. - . , -
Defendant further contends-that Instruction Nó.'l was prejudicially erroneous.. It states as its principal objections-to-this instruction that it -permitted. the jury to find defendant -guilty..of negligence “without requiring a-finding'-that the" boys were boisterous or engaged in rowdy tactics with the knowledge-of the defendant-;’.’-and that no,finding was .required that .“a situation.was--thereby created' which was--unsafe for .patrons of the ball-park.’,’ . -, ' ■ -.
Instruction-No. 1, .-after hypothesizing-the f'aets concerning plaintiff’s ip. jury, continued: “And- if you, further believe "and find *1001 from the evidence that defendant, its agents or -employees had permitted and directed-said group of young Negro boys described in the - evidence as cushion- pickers to gather and congregate, if you so find, in close proximity to plaintiff and others leaving said ball-p'ark, if you so-.find; and if you further find-that said group of boys had engaged in pushing, shoving,- and wrestling in close proximity to patrons of- defendants ball games on several occasions' prior to October 1, 1946, if- you so. find; and if you further'believe' and find from the evidence that defendant failed to supervise or preserve order in said group of boys,- if you so find, when defendant, its agents or employees, if you so find,- knew; or by the exercise of ordinary care could have known, that without -^.supervision or means of preserving order the said group-, of boys, or any of them, if you so find, would engage in pushing, shoving, and wrestling in closé proximity to plaintiff -and others -there present, if- you so find, and would thus and thereby endanger-the safety of plaintiff and-others, and if you find that defendant in failing to supervisé or preserve order as aforesaid, if you so find, was then and-there guilty of- negligence, and that plaintiff was injured -as a direct and 'proximate result of the aforesaid negligence, if you so find from the facts that the defendant was guilty of negligence, as aforesaid, then your verdict must be in favor of the plaintiff and -against the defendant. ”- -
We think these objections are well taken. The basis of plaintiff’s case must be notice to defendant by previous knowledge of the conduct of these boys creating a situation or condition in that area unsafe for patrons leaving the stands by that route. [See Illustrations 2 Restatement of Torts 9.55, under Sec. 348; Prosser on Torts 643, Sec. 79.] We cannot go so far as to say that it would be negligence to ever assemble, any group of boys there for , such a purpose without supervision because we cannot hold that it could reasonably be foreseen that’ doing so would be likely to' create a dangerous condition to patrons. “Negligence'which imposes'liability must result from a faulty or defective foresight. (Not hindsight.) . . . On what should have been anticipated, rather than what happened.” [McCollum v. Winnwood Amusement Co.,
This instruction did require a finding that' these boys “had engaged in pushing, shoving and wrestling in close proximity to patrons” but *1002 nowhere did it require a finding that the defendant had knowledge of such conduct previously or even that it had continued for such a period of time that defendant in the exercise of reasonable care should have known of it. It only required a finding that it knew (or could have known) that these boys “would engage in pushing, shoving and wrestling in close proximity to plaintiff and others.” However, the basis of such a finding on the evidence in this case would have to be defendant’s knowledge that such conduct had previously occurred; and this could not merely be assumed or inferred from the fact that defendant authorized a group of boys to be assembled there or that they had engaged in such activities unknown to it. Defendant would only be required to take action wh.en it had reason to believe, from what it had observed or from past experience, that the conduct of these boys would be dangerous to its patrons (Prosser, Sec. 79) ; and that was the fact issue which should have been submitted to the jury. In other words, the defect of this instruction is that it seems to be based on the premise that it could reasonably be anticipated that assembling any group of boys at such a' time and place would create a dangerous situation for the results of which defendant would be liable. We, therefore, hold that giving this instruction was prejudicial error.
The judgment is reversed and cause remanded for a new trial.