29 Mo. App. 41 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1888
This was an action under section 809, Revised Statutes, begun before a justice of the peace, for the recovery of double damages for the killing by defendant of plaintiff’s mare.
It was necessary for the statement or petition to allege, by direct averment or necessary implication, that the plaintiff’s mare got upon the defendant’s railroad track at a point where, by the law, the defendant was required to erect and maintain fences. Manz v. Rail
The material averments of the statement in this .case are as follows: ‘c That, on the said eleventh day of November, 1886, said mare casually, and without fault of the plaintiff, strayed upon the ground and track of said railroad, in said township and county; that, while said mare was so on said track of the said railroad, the defendant, by its agents and servants, ran the locomotive and the cars of the defendant against the same, and wounded and killed said mare; that the defendant has failed to erect and maintain a good and substantial fence where the said mare strayed upon said track, and was wounded and killed, and the same was not within the corporate limits of any city or town ; that, by reason of the said failure of the defendant to erect and maintain good and substantial fences, as aforesaid, the said mare was wounded and killed. Wherefore, the plaintiff was damaged in the sum of two hundred dollars, and prays judgment for four hundred dollars, double the amount of. damages so sustained, and costs.”
The statement contains no direct averment that the plaintiff’s mare got upon the defendant’s railroad track at a point where, by the law, the defendant was required to erect and maintain fences. The question is, is the allegation of such fact made in the statement by necessary implication? The statement seeks to make such allegation, by implication, by averring that the point at which the mare went upon the defendant’s
Jackson v. Railroad, 80 Mo. 147, is not an authority in favor of the sufficiency of the statement in this case. The statement in that case alleged: “That on the twentieth day of March, 1880, in Poplar Bluff township, in Butler county, and state aforesaid, and where its said railroad was not fenced, and where there was no crossing on said railroad, the defendant, by its agents and servants, while running its locomotive and train of cars on its said railroad, did then and there run over one mare, the property of plaintiff, and of the value of sixty dollars, and thereby killed her; that defendant had failed and neglected to erect and maintain good and sufficient fences on the sides of its said railroad, where said mare got on the track and was killed; that, by reason of the killing of said mare as aforesaid, and by virtue of section 809, of the Bevised Statutes of the state of Missouri, judgment is prayed for one hundred and twenty dollars, being double the value of said mare, killed as aforesaid, together with costs.” The statement was held sufficient. The court said: “The statement that the defendant failed and neglected to erect or maintain good or suffi
In Morrow v. Railroad, 82 Mo. 171, the statement averred that the hogs “strayed upon the track of defendant’s road at the times and places above stated, etc., where the road was not fenced with a good and sufficient fence, and not at any public or private crossing,” etc. It was not averred that the plaintiff sued under section 809. The court held the statement insufficient, saying : “ But it is nowhere averred that the point where they so entered was where, by the law, the defendant was required to build a fence, or that Tie sues under section 809. The point where the hogs got upon the track may have been inside the corporate limits of, a town, where streets and alleys were laid off and in use, and where no obligation is imposed, by law, on defendant to fence, and yet this statement be true in fact. Nor is there any equivalent fact stated by which this inference might be negatived.” And it is a.dded that Jackson v. Railroad, supra, did not uphold the statement.
The statement held good by this court in McClellan v. Railroad, 4 West. Rep. 754, was in all respects the same as the statement in Jackson v. Railroad. For the reason just given, the case cannot be considered as upholding the statement in the present case.
In the statement, held good in Marrett v. Railroad, 84 Mo. 413, it was alleged that the animal went upon the track at a point, “ not in the corporate limits of a city or town, and not at a public crossing, where said road was not enclosed by a good and lawful fence.” In the statement in the present case there is no allegation that the place where the animal went upon the track was uot at a public crossing.
For the errors mentioned the judgment is reversed and cause remanded.