190 Mo. 144 | Mo. | 1905
This is an appeal by the defendant from judgment in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of six thousand dollars in an action for personal injuries.
The cause of action stated in the petition is as follows :
‘ ‘ That on the 1st day of February, 1901, the plaintiff was lawfully driving a team of horses attached to a loaded wagon northward on Broadway at its intersection with Buchanan street, when the wheels of the wagon he was so driving went into a hole in said streets at their intersection, and said team were unable to pull the wagon further and became stalled, and in endeavoring to get said wagon pulled out of said hole, said team were upon the track of the defendant St. Louis Transit Company, and whilst said team were so on the track of said St. Louis Transit Company on said streets at said place, and whilst said wagon and the wheels thereof were at and near said defendant’s track, the defendant St. Louis Transit Company’s motorman and conductor in charge of its south-bound car carelessly and negligently and without using ordinary care to control or stop said car, caused and suffered said car to collide with said team and a part of said wagon whereby plaintiff was thrown from said wagon to the street, and one of the horses of said team was thrown and fell upon the plaintiff, greatly and permanently injuring plaintiff upon his body, legs and feet, causing a concussion of the brain which rendered him unconscious. His foot was thereby crushed, bruised and injured, and the bones thereof and the ligaments, tendons, muscles and flesh thereof were fractured, ruptured, displaced and torn and plaintiff was permanently injured thereby.
“And for another and further assignment of negligence of defendant St. Louis Transit Company the plaintiff avers that at the time of his said injuries, there was in force in the city of St. Louis, an ordinance of said city, whereby it was provided that motormen and*151 conductors of street cars should keep a vigilant watch for vehicles and persons either on its track or moving towards it and upon the first appearance of danger to such vehicle or person, the car should he stopped within the shortest time and space possible, and plaintiff avers that at the time of said collision and his injuries defendant’s motorman and conductor in charge of its said car failed to keep such vigilant watch and failed to stop said car within the shortest time and space possible upon the first appearance of danger to said vehicle and plaintiff, which violation of said ordinance directly contributed to cause said collision and plaintiff’s said injuries. ’ ’
The answer was a general denial and the following plea:
‘‘ For another and further defense to said petition, defendant avers that whatever injuries the plaintiff sustained were occasioned by his own carelessness and negligence in driving in front of defendant’s moving car while the same was in close proximity to him.”
The facts in the case disclosed by the evidence are substantially as follows:
The plaintiff, a young man aged about twenty-four years, in the employ of one Merten as driver of a coal wagon, at ten dollars and fifty cents per week, was, on the first day of February, 1901, driving a two-horse team and wagon, loaded with coal, on Broadway in the city of St. Louis, on which street the defendant operates its street cars upon two tracks: north-bound ears going on the east track, and south-bound cars on the west track. The plaintiff was driving north on the west side of Broadway, parallel with and distant from the west track about three feet, when near the intersection of Broadway with Buchanan street the front wheels of his wagon went into a hole in the street and his team stalled; he succeeded in getting the front wheels out, but when the hind wheels went into the hole, in order to extricate them he had to swing his hor-ses towards the
It was daylight when the accident happened — the track was level — the view north for three or four blocks • was unobstructed.
The evidence for the plaintiff tended to prove that the defendant’s car was going at the rate of twenty miles an hour, that no effort was made to stop the car or check its speed before the team was struck, and that it went thirty or forty feet after the team was struck before it was stopped — that the team was on the track some time before it was struck, plaintiff says four or five minutes. Three other witnesses testify that the plaintiff’s team was on the track when they saw the defendant’s car approaching at a distance of from two
The only witness called for the defendant was the motorman, who testified that he first saw the plaintiff and his team when he was one block north of where the team stood, that the horses were not then on the track hut standing still beside it, that his car was going about ten miles an hour and that when the car was about fifty or sixty feet from the horses they swung across the west rail, were struck, and the car ran about thirty feet further.
1. At the inception of the trial the defendant moved the court to require the plaintiff to elect on which one of the causes of action stated in the petition he will stand, upon the grounds: “First, that said petition attempts to combine in one count both alleged common-law negligence and the alleged violation of an ordinance commonly called the vigilant watch ordinance; second, said petition attempts to combine in one'count a cause of action ex contractu and a cause of action ex delicto” — and in the course of the trial the plaintiff was permitted to introduce said ordinance in evidence over the objections of the defendant. The overruling of the motion to elect, and the admission of the ordinance in evidence is assigned as error. These assignments of, error were argued and considered in the case of Sluder v. Transit Co., 189 Mo. 107, in which the whole question is exhaustively treated in the opinions in that case, delivered at the last sitting of the Court in Banc on the first of June, 1905 — and in which the ruling was adverse to the contention of defendant. Hence, we hold in this,
2. At the close of plaintiff’s evidence and at the close of all the evidence the defendant interposed a demurrer thereto, and the overruling of these demurrers is assigned as error.
On the main issue the case was submitted to the jury upon the following instructions:
For plaintiff:
‘ ‘ 1. Although the jury should believe and find from the evidence that the plaintiff whilst trying to get his wagon out of a hole in the street (if the jury find that the wagon was so in a hole) and that in driving his horses attached to the wagon, got them upon defendant’s track in Broadway, yet if the jury find from the evidence that after said horses were so upon said track they were in danger of being struck by defendant’s south-bound car and that defendant’s motorman saw said team on said track, and in danger of being struck by said car, and that after said motorman saw said team on said track and in such danger he could by the exercise of ordinary care have stopped said car and prevented said car from striking said team and neglected to do so and caused said car to strike said team and injure the plaintiff, then plaintiff is entitled to recover even if the jury should believe that he did not exercise ordinary care in pulling his horses on said track.
“2. If the jury find from the evidence in this case that on the 1st day of February, 1901, the defendant was operating the railway and car mentioned in the evidence for the purpose of transporting persons for hire from one point to another in the city of St. Louis, and if the jury find from the evidence that at said time Broadway and Buchanan streets at the places mentioned in the evidence wére open public streets within*155 the city of St. Louis, and if the jury find from the evidence that on said day the plaintiff was driving a team attached to a wagon northward on Broadway, at its intersection with Buchanan street in the city of St. Louis, and that whilst doing so the wagon was stalled and in attempting to get his wagon away from the place where stalled, the plaintiff pulled the horses on the track of the defendant in said street, and if the jury find from the evidence in this case that whilst said horses were on defendant’s track, defendant’s motorman in charge of its car saw said horses on said track and in danger of being’ struck by said car as it moved along defendant’s track, and if the jury further find from the evidence that said motorman after he saw said horses on said track and in danger of being struck and injured by said car, could by the exercise of ordinary care have stopped said car and averted striking said team and neglected to do so; and if the jury find from the evidence in this case that whilst said team was so upon defendant’s track and in such danger, defendant’s motorman in charge of its south-bound car caused or suffered said car to strike one of said horses, throw him down upon plaintiff and injure the plaintiff, and if the jury find from the evidence that defendant’s said motorman did not exercise ordinary care in thus causing said car to strike said horse and injure the plaintiff, then the plaintiff is entitled to recover if he was exercising ordinary care at the time of his injury. ’ ’
For defendant:
“2. It was the duty of the plaintiff while approaching defendant’s track in the street to look'and listen, for the purpose of ascertaining'whether a car was coming or not; and if you find from the evidence that plaintiff could have known of the approach of the car on the track by either looking or listening in time to have avoided a collision with the car, and that he either failed to look or listen, or, if he looked or listened, to*156 heed what he saw or to take any precaution to avoid a collision with the car when he might have done so by the exercise of ordinary care, then he was guilty of such negligence as defeats his recovery in this action, and your verdict must be for the defendant; provided you further find that the defendant, by the exercise of ordinary care and prudence, could not have avoided the collision after it discovered the plaintiff’s perilous position.
“3. Ton are further instructed that while the rights of plaintiff and defendant to the use of the street were equal, mutual and reciprocal, yet, if you find from the evidence that defendant’s car moved upon a fixed track and was propelled by a power less easily controlled than a driver’s control of his team, and was under such a momentum as to render it more difficult to stop than for the team to have stopped, then it became the duty of the plaintiff not to attempt to cross in close proximity to the approaching car, but to stop temporarily and let the car pass, and if you find.from the evidence that by so doing the plaintiff could have avoided the collision and that he failed so to do, then you should find that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence, which defeats the plaintiff’s right to recovery in this action, and your verdict must be for the defendant; provided you further find the defendant, by the exercise of ordinary care and prudence, could not have avoided the collision after it discovered the perilous position of the plaintiff.
“4. The court instructs the jury that if they believe from'the evidence that plaintiff saw said car coming, or in the exercise of ordinary care could have seen said ear coming, and that he was then standing on the double-tree of his wagon and that he could have avoided said accident by jumping from said wagon, and that in the exercise of ordinary care he would have jumped and that he failed to do so and thereby directly contributed to his injuries, he cannot recover and your verdict must*157 "be for the defendant; provided you further find that the defendant, in the exercise of ordinary care and prudence, could not have avoided the collision.
“5. The court instructs the jury that if from the evidence the jury "believe that defendant’s motorman operating the said car saw plaintiff’s wagon and horses resting near defendant’s track, but "so far away from said track as not to be in danger of being struck by said moving car, defendant’s motorman had the right to assume that plaintiff’s horses would remain in said position and had the right to move his car forward and if the jury further believe from the evidence that thereafter plaintiff’s horses changed their position and got in front of said car and thereby caused or directly contributed to plaintiff’s alleged injuries and that the motorman in charge thereof could not then stop his ear and avoid said accident, plaintiff cannot recover and your verdict must be for the defendant.”
Instructions numbered 2, 3 and A, as asked for by the defendant, were modified by the court by adding the proviso in each, in italics. The modification of these instructions and the giving of the two instructions aforesaid for the plaintiff is assigned as error.
3. It is contended for the defendant that the demurrer to the evidence ought to have been sustained because the plaintiff turned-his horses directly across the track without looking or listening for an approaching car and continued in that position when there was nothing to prevent his swinging his horses to. their original position where they would have been out of danger from the approaching car which he might have seen if he had looked. This contention is not well grounded. Plaintiff testified that when he swung the horses across the track he looked and there was no coming ear in view; that he did not look again because he was busy getting out of the hole; that the horses were on the track slipping and one of them was shying; that he was holding himself on the wagon with one hand and
4. The instructions given for the plaintiff, the modification of the defendant’s instructions as asked, and the refusal of the court to give three other instructions asked by the defendant are attacked upon the ground that the effect thereof was to eliminate from the consideration of the jury any contributory negligence of the defendant; and the argument in support thereof is on the same line with that made in support of the demurrer to the evidence.
The issues to be submitted to the jury under the pleadingá and on the evidence in this case were plain and simple. The charge in the petition is that while the plaintiff’s horses were on the defendant’s track and his wagon at or near it, the defendant’s servants carelessly and negligently caused the defendant’s car
Plaintiff had as much right on the street as did defendant, and in pursuing his way to be on that part of the street over which the defendant’s track was laid. It was his duty to pursue his way with due care for his own safety, and the safety of others, and if, negligent of the former, he went in the way of defendant’s car in such close proximity thereto as that the servants of the defendant could not by the exercise of ordinary care prevent injury to him, he has himself only to blame for his injuries, and he ought not to recover, and so the court in effect instructed the jury. On the other hand, it was the duty of the servants of the defendant to pursue their way on defendant’s track in the street with due care for the safety of all persons that might be on the
The verdict was for the right party, and we find no error in the action of the court on the instructions, either given or refused, that calls for a reversal.
5. No error is assigned upon the instructions on the measure of damages, hut it is contended that the verdict is so excessive as to evince passion and prejudice on the part of the jury. We do not think so, in view of the plaintiff’s serious injuries which have been fully set out. While the verdict is a liberal one, it does not shock our sense of justice or furnish any reasonable ground for the assumption that it was the product of partiality or prejudice on the part of the jury. On the whole record, finding no substantial error in the trial affecting the merits of the case, the judgment of the circuit court will be affirmed.