Mudd v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.
Mudd v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
(after stating the facts). — The court advised the jury if they found from the evidence the vehicle called by the witnesses an “inspection car” was not a locomotive engine, then it was not subject to the statutory regulation requiring a whistle to be sounded or a bell rung when approaching a road or street crossing in the city of Monroe. The petition counted on a municipal regulation and not on the statute, as the instruction implied. However, we have no doubt the car or engine which frightened the team was a locomotive engine within the meaning both of the city ordinance and of the statute requiring a bell to be rung or a whistle sounded by a
Counsel for defendant insists plaintiff ought not to be heard to complain of this instruction, because, in the first instruction granted at his request, he made an issue for the jury as to the character of the engine in the last paragraph. Defendant’s counsel reasons that, by the words, “if it did run one” (i. e., a locomotive engine), etc., plaintiff left it to the jury to say whether the inspection car was a locomotive engine, because, as the fact that the defendant ran the inspection car in the city of Monroe at the time alleged, was not disputed, plaintiff’s counsel could only have meant by the words “if it did run one,” to submit the question of whether the in spection car, which was conceded to have been run, was a locomotive engine in the sense of the statute and the ordinance. If it could fairly be said plaintiff invited the submission of this question, his complaint would not be heeded; but we cannot say this is the effect of the first instruction. We grant it was unnecessary to ask the jury to say whether the inspection car was operated over defendant’s track in Monroe City at the time of the accident. But the sense of the words “if it did run one,” when read in connection with the remainder of the instruction, would be strained by holding they made the character of the car a question for the jury. Those words were meant to reiterate the hypothetical fact the jury were required to find in the preceding portion of the instruction, namely, that “defendant’s agents, servants and employees ran a locomotive engine over its track at said point,” etc., meaning not to ask a finding of whether the inspection car was a locomotive engine, but to ask what was, perhaps, an unnecessary finding: — ■
It is contended all the substantial evidence on the issue tended to prove the bell on the inspection car was rung continuously as it approached the crossing, but this position is untenable. The driver of the team testified unequivocally the bell was not rung nor the whistle sounded until the car was on the crossing, and he did not see the car because he was behind the shanty and it gave him no warning. That testimony was of a positive instead of a negative character, and was for the jury to weigh in comparison with contradictory testimony.
Plaintiff voluntarily, and not by compulsion of the court, elected to stand on the first count of the petition.
We say nothing about whether the supposed alteration in the disposition of the horses in consequence of their fright is a proper element of damages, as the point had not been briefed and there were items of damages consisting of money paid for repairs to the wagon and harness.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.