This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by respondent (plaintiff) while alighting from one of appellant’s (defendant’s) streetcars. The petition prayed damages in the amount of $10,000. There was a verdict for appellant. The trial court sustained respondent’s motion for a new trial, and appellant has appealed from this order.
The trial court sustained the motion for a new trial “on account of the admission of incompetent evidence.” Appellant asserts that the order of the trial court is so general that it fails to comply with the statutory requirement that the ground or grounds upon which a new trial is granted shall be specified of record. (Laws, Mo. 1943, p. 388, Sec. 115, Mo. R. S. A. § 847.115) We agree with this contention. The ground stated is toó general to furnish any information to the parties or to this Court concerning the real basis of the trial court’s action. It does not fulfill the purpose of the statute. Ordelheide v. Berger Land Co.,
Respondent was a passenger on one of appellant’s streetcars. While alighting from the front end, she fell and was injured. Her evidence was that a metal strip on the outer edge of the front vestibule was loose and extended about one-half inch above the floor. The strip was rusty and worn, and one of the screws designed to hold it down was loose. The heel of one shoe caught on the strip; she tripped and was thrown to the street.
Appellant’s evidence was that the metaljstrip was properly fastened down and that the front vestibule of the car was free of any defects. Respondent was carrying two shopping bags, and her fall was probably caused by tripping on one of these bags. In addition, three ■motormen who operated the streetcar over a period of about twenty-four hours, both preceding and following respondent’s accident, testified, over respondent’s objections, that over 750 passengers had ridden the streetcar during this period; that they had used the front vestibule of the car • and that no other passenger had tripped and fallen.
One of the assignments of error in the motion for a new trial was directed specifically to this testimony of the three motormen. Respondent asserts that this evidence was incompetent and the trial court’s error in the admission of this evidence was ample justifica *434 tion for the action of the court in sustaining the motion for a new trial. Appellant argues that the evidence was competent and was properly admitted.
Before examining these contentions, we must consider a preliminary matter. The only objection made to this testimony was that it was “wholly immaterial.” Appellant argues that such an objection is so vague and general that it amounts to no objection at all. The eases cited by appellant on this point consider the sufficiency of a record for appellate review where the trial court has denied the motion for a new trial. They have no application here. If matters of error are raised in a motion for a new trial, the trial court has the authority to correct its errors, within the scope of the motion, even though no objection had previously been made to the matters of which complaint is made. Beer v. Martel,
While there is a difference of-opinion upon the subject, the weight of authority seems to support the view that evidence showing the non-occurrence of other accidents is not competent to show that a place where an accident occurred was reasonably safe and free from danger. Such evidence is held to be inadmissible because it has no reasonable tendency to prove that a place of injury was free from danger and because it raises collateral issues which have a tendency to confuse and mislead the jury. Cassanova v. Paramount-Richards Theatres,
Appellant concedes that such evidence has been rejected in every Missouri case which has had ■ occasion to consider the matter. It argues, however, that some of these cases recognize, at least by implication, that such evidence of the non-occurrence of other accidents is admissible in a proper case where sufficient similarity of conditions is shown and where the proffered testimony is free from hearsay. Both appellant and respondent rely upon Blackwell v. J. J. Newberry, (Mo. App.)
In Chase v. Wabash R. Co.,
Appellant argues that since the Missouri decisions recognize that evidence of the occurrence of prior accidents is admissible where sufficient similarity of conditions is shown, it should logically follow that defendant has the right to introduce evidence that no other accidents occurred. This is not a new contention. It was advanced in Walker v. Mitchell Clay Mfg. Co., supra, but the court did not consider it persuasive. When evidence of the occurrence of a prior accident is admissible, it is generally received as tending to show the dangerous character of a place of injury or the dangerous condition of an appliance and the defendant’s knowledge of such condition. According to the weight of authority, such evidence is not admissible “to prove the cause of a specific occurrence to establish a specific act of negligence.” 20 Am. Jur., Sec. 304, pp. 282, 283. In cases such as Charlton v. St. Louis & S. F. R. Co.,
In this case, there was no agreement concerning .the condition of the front vestibule of the streetcar. Respondent contended that the metal strip along the outer edge was loose so that it caught her heel. Appellant’s evidence showed that the metal strip was not loose and, inferentially, that it could not catch her heel and was not the cause of her fall. Evidence that other passengers fell while using the front vestibule of the streetcar would not have been admissible unless the evidence showed that such accidents were caused by tripping over the loose metal strip. Taylor v. Kansas City, supra. If the evidence of other accidents showed such facts, it is obvious that it would have constituted direct, and not circumstantial, proof of the defect which respondent claimed to exist. On the other hand, proof that other passengers fell, without more, would not have been competent to show the existence of the defect which was essential to respondent’s case. It follows, we believe, that evidence that other passengers did not fall would not have a reasonable tendency to prove that the metal strip was not in a loose and defective condition. We hold that the evidence of the motormen as to the non-occurrence of other accidents was inadmissible because it introduced a confusion of issues and because it did not reasonably tend to prove that the front vestibule of the streetcar was free of the claimed defect.
Appellant argues that, even if the testimony of the.motormen was incompetent, respondent waived any right to complain because (1) such evidence was invited by respondent’s testimony that the streetcar was old, that appellant put its worst cars on this particular line, and that only Negroes rode them; and (2) respondent failed to object to the testimony of two other passengers, elicited by appellant, that they did not trip or fall in getting off the streecar. As to the first contention, we see no connection between respondent’s general reference to the condition of this car or other streetcars on the line and the testimony of the motormen'. As to the second contention, one of the passengers testified directly that the metal strip was loose and projected above the floor of the vestibule. The testimony of the other passenger had no similarity in character or quality to the testimony of the motormen that hundreds of passengers used the streetcar without tripping and falling. We find no merit in these contentions.
Respondent argues that her motion for a new trial was also properly sustained because the court erred in refusing to give, as requested, her instruction submitting her theory of the case and in modifying the same, so that the instruction as given was incorrect, confusing, and misleading. The instruction, as requested, required the jury to find that appellant suffered and permitted the front *437 vestibule of the ear to be and remain out of repair so that it was dangerous for respondent to go ovei it; and that it suffered and permitted the metal strip on the outer edge to become loosened and to project above the floor level and to remain in such condition after the lapse of a reasonable time to have repaired the same, “so as to render it dangerous to a person using the said front vestibule floor and steps.” The court struck out the. word “dangerous” and substituted the words “reasonably safe.” This changed the meaning of the instruction. The portion of the instruction quoted referred to the hypothesized facts that the metal strip was loose and projected above the floor level “so as to render it dangerous.” The trial court was in error in making this modification, and we believe the instruction, as modified, was confusing.
Other matters of which respondent complains are not likely to occur upon a second trial, and we need not discuss them.
The trial court properly exercised its discretion in granting respondent a new trial, and the order sustaining respondent’s motion for a new trial is affirmed.
PER CURIAM: — The foregoing opinion by Aschemeyer, C., is adopted as the opinion of the court.