Jones v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.
Jones v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
In August, 1905, this plaintiff shipped a carload of watermelons over defendant’s railway from Morley in Scott county, to St. Louis as the point of destination. He was accorded the privilege of peddling the melons at stations on the way. For this purpose he went along as a passenger on the train, and prior to reaching the station of De Soto, observed the door of the car containing his melons hung by only one hinge, or “hanger” as the witnesses say. Plaintiff testified the door came off a hinge while in transit. The train arrived at De Soto after dark and plaintiff’s car was pulled opposite the passenger depot. He got off the car at De Soto and looked about the railway yards, believing he would find car repairers or inspectors who would adjust the hanging of the door. He asked two workmen he met in the yards if they were car repairers or inspectors, and on receiving an affirmative answer, told them of the door of his car being out of order and that he wanted it fixed. He and those two men walked back to the car, and as the car door was taken hold of by one of the three, or was about to be, it fell on plaintiff, cradling his skull, his testimony goes to prove, though there is other testimony which looks like the injury was slight. Just what caused the fall of the door is 'uncertain and different conclusions might be drawn from the evidence, some of which tends to prove the fall Avas due to a jar or motion of the train as one or more of the three men was or were in the act of lifting it. Other evidence is that it simply fell over when one of the car repairers lifted it and still other evidence is that plaintiff himself was helping to lift it when it fell. His version is that after the two men had agreed to fix the door, he Avalked back with them a feAV steps to the car, pointed it out and then, while he was standing about four feet away,' one of the work
“He reached out his hand and I don’t think it was ten seconds hardly from the time I asked him — I told him I had a car door out of repair — I couldn’t lock it —and asked him if he could fix it, just a short time; it was not but a few feet to the car door, and we started walking back and I said this is the car, and the next thing I knew the car door hit me.
“Q. When you said ‘this is the car,’ did you knock it with your hand or anything of that kind? A. I don’t know whether I did or not; I just said, ‘this is the car.’ ”
Another witness testified much like plaintiff, saying the latter asked the two men if they would fix his •car; they told him they would, and started hack with him; about the time plaintiff got to the door, witness saw the hand of one of the workmen go upward, but did not know whether he took hold of the door; then the switch engine gave the train a jerk and the door fell. Another witness said a car repairer started to push the door up and it fell. Olne of the car repairers testified plaintiff himself was lifting the door when it fell. The negligence charged is furnishing plaintiff a car with a broken door and then sending two employees to'repair it who carelessly jerked it while plaintiff was standing by, thereby causing it to fall on him. An instruction to the jury was that if the company undertook to furnish plaintiff a car in which to ship and peddle watermelons, its duty was to furnish a car in good condition and repair, and if plaintiff was injured
The judgment will be reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.