97 Mo. 512 | Mo. | 1888
In this action the plaintiff seeks to recover five thousand dollars damages for the negligent killing of her husband (Christopher Wagner) by defendant’s servants.
The petition charges that her husband, on the eighteenth day of December, 1881, being on defendant’s train of cars between the town of Russellville and the
The answer to plaintiff’s petition was a general denial and also set up “that the deceased was nota passenger on said train of cars, but was wrongfully and unlawfully on said train, and a trespasser thereon, and further that said deceased was guilty of negligence, contributing in whole or in part to his injuries or death,” in this, that he wrongfully got upon the_flat-car next to the locomotive, which was a dangerous place, and refused to leave the same when requested so to do by the conductor. The replication denied the new matter set up in the answer.
At the conclusion of the plaintiff’s evidence, the court sustained an instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence and the jury returned a verdict for the defendant. Plaintiff’s motion for anew trial having been overruled, the case is brought here by writ of error.
The evidence offered by plaintiff went to show that for some time prior to the accident, which occurred on Sunday, December 18, 1881, the defendant had been
The evidence shows that the deceased and the three others who were likewise killed in the accident, took their places on an improvised seat on the flat-car next to the engine. The seat was made by those on the car putting the ends of a plank upon two empty spike kegs. The plank was put up to them by the conductor, who requested them, however, to go into the box-car, telling them it would be a better place for them to ride. They said they wanted to ride on the flat-car to see the country. They made the same reply to the brakeman, who told them that the box-car was a better and more comfortable place to ride. The conductor said nothing more, got into the box-car, and the train started, and was running at a rate of speed variously estimated at from fifteen to twenty miles an hour, when, at a distance of about one mile and a half from Russellville, on a down-grade, the train jumped the track. The jarring of the flat-car on which the deceased and his companions were, caused by the jerking of the engine after its derailment, hurled them from the car, underneath the trucks of the engine, and in the wreck, the deceased and another were killed, and two others so injured that they afterwards died. There were no guards or sideboards around the flat-car, nothing by which those on it could catch hold, and no one was injured on the train except those on the flat-car.
The evidence further tended to show the grades,
" I. Section 2121, R. S. 1879, under which this action is brought, gives to the widow of any person who shall die from an injury resulting from the negligence of a servant while running a train of cars, a right of action against the master of such servant, whether a passenger on such train of cars or not. A right of action against the master, however, for an injury resulting from any defect in the railroad, or in the cars, or machinery being run on it, is limited to the widow, etc., of one who as a passenger receives such an injury. It clearly appears from the petition in this case that the injury complained of, was one resulting from the neglect of the defendant’s servants to discharge the master’s duty to one who was on the master’s train of cars while it was being run by his servants. Inasmuch, however, as it did not state in what relation to the defendant the deceased was so upon the cars, it failed to show the measure of the duty of the defendant to him, and would in this respect have for its uncertainty been obnoxious to a timely objection for that reason. But as the defendant did not see proper.to raise the objection before the trial, but in its answer tendered the issue “ that he was not a passenger on its train and that it did not owe him the duty of a passenger,” which issue the plaintiff accepted, and joined, and both parties-went to trial upon it, that objection was waived and afforded no ground for a new trial, and cannot be considered on writ of error.
This train was ordered out on this trip by dispatch from Sedalia. What instructions, if any, were given to the conductor in regard to passengers does not appear. The evidence does not show any regulation of the com. pany prohibiting passengers from being carried on this train when making such a trip, or that deceased was or could have been informed that his going upon this train as a passenger was contrary to any regulation of the company, or to any instruction to the conductor who was the officer of the company present at the time deceased proposed to take passage, having control and management thereof, and having apparent authority to determine whether he could travel on such train as a passenger or not. On other days of the week, this train, under the command of this conductor, was regularly used for the purpose of transporting passengers. On this day he was exercising the same control over it, apparently, that he usually did ; he was the officer and the only one present in absolute control of its movement, with the apparent right to say who, if any one, should travel on it; and when he permitted the deceased to take passage on it, as may be fairly inferred
III. The plaintiff’s husband was killed by being thrown from the position he took at Russellville on the flat-car. That car was located between the locomotive, on which was the defendant’s engineer, and the box-car, in which, was its conductor, both of which were in juxtaposition to the flat-car. The evidence tends to show that he was there in the yiew, and with the knowledge of both engineer and conductor. The result of the accident proved his position to be one of danger to him, when the engine and tender were derailed, and that the derailment of the tender and engine was the proximate cause of the injury. The evidence tended to show that the derailment was the result of the manner in which the train was made up, and the speed at which it was being run on the road in its condition at the time the accident occurred; that there was no connection between the presence of the deceased on the flat-car, and the derailment of the engine and tender. That the
“Negligence * * * is an inference from facts. If it is not shown by some definite and positive act, the effect of which is not open to reasonable question, but depends on inferences from facts, in making which sensible and impartial men may well disagree, the question is for the jury.” Pierce on Railroads, 317. It does not follow from the fact that if the deceased had been in the box-car he wouldn’t have been hurt, that he was guilty of negligence in taking a position on the flat-car ; unless he was there in disregard of some monition of danger, or in disobedience of some rule or order forbidding him that position, of which he had notice. In the absence of which, the question was one for the jury to determine whether, under all the facts and circumstances, an ordinarily prudent man could have reasonably anticipated that, by taking that position, he was exposing himself to the injury he received. The evidence fails to show any such order, rule or monition, but on the contrary a reasonable inference might be drawn therefrom that he was on the flatcar with the consent of the conductor, as he certainly was with his knowledge, and with the knowledge of the other servants of defendant who were operating the train from the time it started until it was wrecked ; and the further question for the jury to determine on the evidence was presented, whether the defendant’s servants, knowing his situation on the train, if it was one
The defendant’s demurrer to the evidence ought to have been overruled, and under proper instructions, the case ought to have been submitted to the jury, and for the error of the court in sustaining the demurrer, the judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the cause remanded for new trial.