Green v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.
Green v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff brought the present action to recover damages on account of being negligently delayed on one of defendant’s trains, whereby he was exposed in one of defendant’s cars to extremely cold weather during a night in January, 1902. He recovered judgment in the trial court.
It appears that plaintiff, a man sixty-six years old, in company with his wife, was travelling in a vehicle drawn by two horses from the northern part of the State to his home in Camden county, south of the Missouri river. That he arrived near that stream at a place on defendant’s line of railway called Estill in the afternoon of January 5th and there learned that he could not cross the river, as the ferry was not running. Estill was two miles north of a station called Franklin Junction and about five miles north of Boonville, a city on the south bank of the river. On the next afternoon, he made inquiry of defendant’s agent at Estill and was informed that his horses and vehicle could be shipped to Boon-ville for eight dollars and that he, the agent, did not know whether he would be taken without further charge, but that he could ascertain from the conductor when the
The defense pleaded was a general denial and that, if plaintiff got into the car and remained for any length of time and was exposed to the cold, such conduct was voluntary and without any fault, suggestion or knowledge of defendant. And that if plaintiff suffered any pain or impairment of health, or expense in consequence of such exposure, it was the result of his own reckless, careless and negligent conduct contributing thereto. The theory of the defense, as made to appear in the brief and argument, is that there was no delay since the car, in which plaintiff elected to travel, was moved according to regular schedule for handling business. That, if there was delay, it did not cause the injury. That defendant was not required to heat a freight car. That plaintiff could have left the car at any time during the delay. We will dispose of the case on the concession that there was evidence in defendant’s behalf tending to support its defense.
The.fact that plaintiff was being carried by a freight train will not excuse defendant from liability for negligence. And the question of negligence will be decided as if he had been upon a regular passenger train; except the nature of a freight train, the inconvenience and danger necessarily attending such mode of conveyance, will be considered in determining whether the carrier’s conduct was culpable. [Whitehead v. Railroad, 99 Mo. 263; Wait v. Railroad, 165 Mo. 612.]
Some stress is laid upon the fact that plaintiff occupied a freight car instead of the caboose. But that will not relieve the defendant if it had been negligent. A railway company was held liable to persons accepted as passengers on an open flat car, though the conductor had suggested to them that a box car would be a better place. [Wagner v. Railway, 97 Mo. 512.] ‘ And liable
We, however, readily concede that if one, with the consent of the conductor, voluntarily rides in a freight car, he must accept the consequences which naturally follow from such position, which are not directly influenced or brought about- by the negligence of the carrier. Thus, the plaintiff in this case had no right to expect that heat would be provided for him in the car in which he chose to ride. And we do not understand that counsel put his right to recover on such ground, although it was stated in the petition that there was no stove or heat in the car. It may be said that the absence of heat from the car caused the plaintiff to suffer from the cold. But that fact was known and voluntarily accepted by plaintiff. His complaint, as submitted to the jury, is a negligent delay of more than twelve hours in carrying him a.distance of only five or six miles, whereby he was exposed to the cold for such an unnecessary time as caused his suffering and consequent impairment to health. So we further concede that a passenger, .in the absence of a binding engagement by the carrier, had no right to expect that he will be carried in as short a time by an ordinary freight train as by a passenger train. But he may expect that there will be no unnecessary and negligent delay in his transportation on a freight train. The question of negligent delay was for the jury to determine and it was properly submitted to them, consistently with what we have written, by the court’s instruction wherein they were told to take into consideration the character of the train in determining the question whether there was any negligence.
The defendant insists that the delay was not proximate cause of the injury, of which plaintiff complains,
Evidence of what was said by a carrier’s ticket seller to the passenger when purchasing his ticket in relation to his transportation to his destination has been held to be admissible. [Railroad v. Winter, 143 U. S. 60.] But it seems clear to us that, on the matter of contract, no evidence was needed in this case as to what the defendant’s agent may have said to plaintiff about the time he would arrive in Boonville. The law itself would imply a reasonable time, taking into consideration the character of train, and it was upon that theory plaintiff submitted his cause. The value of what the agent said to plaintiff rested chiefly in the effect it had upon the latter’s conduct afterwards in remaining in the car and ' shutting out from his mind that he would be detained all night.
We find no excuse for defendant in the suggestion that plaintiff was carried according to the schedule for service of its freight trains. It seems that the train, upon which plaintiff took passage at Estill, did not, under the rules of the company, go farther than the junction and that cars of freight were taken up at the latter point by trains coming in on the main line and taken thence on south. It is said that plaintiff’s train got to the junction too late for a train on the main
We regard the injury to plaintiff’s health as being ■proximately caused by the defendant’s negligence. In the situation, in which he was placed at the junction, as described by him in the foregoing quotation from his testimony, the defendant must have known that exposure to the severe cold during all that night would in all probability result injuriously to him and perhaps impair his health.. It was not necessary that defendant must have known just what form of injury would likely result to plaintiff, but, if it left him in such situation as that the exposure would probably injure him, and it did in fact so result, a liability was incurred. The case of Weed v. Railroad, 17 N. Y. 362, was where a husband and wife, passengers on a carrier’s train, were to be carried a distance of thirty miles. After proceeding seven miles, the train was detained all night and the passengers did not reach their destination until next afternoon. The weather was stormy and the wife suffered greatly, whereby her health was impaired. The carrier was held liable. In M. & O. Ry. Co. v. McArthur, 43 Miss. 180, the passenger on a freight train, afflicted with chronic rheumatism, was carried in the
The propriety of the instructions, Avhich the court gave for the plaintiff, and the impropriety of those offered and refused for defendant are sustained by what Ave have already Avritten. But defendant Asms given instruction (No. 4) not in harmony Avith our vieAV of the case and it should not have been given. As, however, the error was committed at defendant’s request and was much in its favor, it furnishes no ground for disturbing the judgment.
After a careful consideration of the whole record, we conclude the judgment should be affirmed.
070rehearing
ON REHEARING.
It not being the duty of a carrier to heat its freight cars for the comfort of passengers when it has a caboose in Avhich such person might ride, the defendant seeks to avoid liability by urging that the cause of action AAdiich plaintiff has stated is that it furnished him a freight car which was not heated and that it confined him in such car by locking the door so that it could not be opened and so that he could not get out in consequence of which he suffered from the cold, etc. The part of the petition necessary to examine in relation to this claim is as follows:
“That on January 6, 1903, and about four o’clock in the afternoon of said day, plaintiff was received and
“That defendant failed in its duty in that regard and committed a breach thereof in that instead of so transporting plaintiff with reasonable expedition and dispatch, it did so delay and procrastinate his transportation between said stations aforesaid; that said train on which plaintiff was a passenger as aforesaid did not arrive at said station of Boonville until five o’clock in the forenoon of January 7, 1903, that is to say, thirteen hours, or thereabouts, after its departure from said Estill station. That plaintiff was thereby detained and delayed in the course of his said transportation between said stations aforesaid for a period of thirteen hours or thereabouts.
“That the car in which plaintiff was being transported by defendant as aforesaid was without a stove or other contrivance for warming the same; that the Aveather at said time Avas intensely cold; that said car, after plaintiff took passage thereon as aforesaid Avas locked and sealed by defendant’s servants so that plaintiff could not get out of it; that plaintiff Avhile detained in said car and by reason of said detention suffered great discomforts and annoyance, and also great physical pain caused by the extreme coldness of the weather to which he was exposed.
“Plaintiff states that by reason of defendant’s breach of duty to him as hereinbefore set out, plaintiff has suffered great mental and physical páin; his health has been permanently injured,” etc.
In our opinion the gravamen of plaintiff’s com
So far as regards the issue of contributory negligence advanced by defendant, founded on plaintiff having voluntarily remained in the car when (as is claimed) he should have left it, we find that the defendant had the benefit of an explicit instruction on that head. An instruction, which, as written, was too broad in defendant’s favor, since it should have been limited by a proviso containing the excuse or reason given by plaintiff
We do not deem it necessary to refer to other points and suggestions made by defendant though we have given them all careful consideration. We conclude that the judgment should be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.