Stark v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.
Stark v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff, by bis guardian, sued defendant for injuries received by a loaded truck fall
The burden is on plaintiff to show that his injury was caused by negligence of defendant, i. e., by the
Plaintiff was using the station platform on the implied invitation of defendant and was neither a trespasser nor a mere licensee. As we observed in the recent case of Winscott v. Railroad, 151 Mo. App. l. c. 381, a person has a right to' go on station premises for the purpose of escorting an outgoing passenger or of meeting one whose arrival is expected. To such a person the railroad company does not owe the extraordinary care it owes a passenger, but does owe him the duty of ordinary care to maintain its station buildings and platforms in a reasonably safe condition for such use., [Doss v. Railway, 59 Mo. 27; Langan v. Railway, 72 Mo. 392; James v. Railroad, 107 Mo. 480; Railroad v. Best, 66 Tex. 116; Gillis v. Railroad, 59 Pa. St. 129.] The duty of defendant towards plaintiff was to exercise reasonable care to maintain the station platform it had provided for the use of patrons in a reasonably safe condition and it cannot be said that such duty would be discharged if defendant maintained concealed traps or pitfalls on the platform in places where its unwary invitees might be expected to become ensnared and injured by them, and it would be a strange doctrine that would excuse defendant from liability on the specious argument that the invitee should have kept away from the trap because it was not designed or intended for his use or convenience. While the truck, obviously, was not intended to be used as a seat or resting place, defendant was bound to anticipate that per
The cases cited by defendant which relate to the proper use of fences, banisters and similar barriers in public or private passageways, e. g., Kelley v. Lawrence, 195 Mo. 75; Stickney v. City of Salem, 3 Allen, 374; Orcutt v. Bridge Co., 53 Me. 500; Kinney v. Onstead, 113 Mich. 96, are not in point. As was said in Winscott v. Railroad, supra, we are not dealing with a case where the plaintiff, traveling on a way prepared only for travel and intended to be used for no other purpose, is injured on account of another use he makes of the place, but with an instance where the plaintiff is injured while using the place for the very purpose for which it was intended and prepared. Plaintiff’s business was that of waiting, in a place provided by defendant for that particular use and it was not to be expected that he would stand in one particular spot for fear of moving, or that he would regard every object on the platform that offered some means of rest or relaxation as being loaded with concealed danger. He had the right to assume that a truck loaded with freight was not a hair-trigger trap that would go off and kill or maim him if he but casually touched or leaned against it. The evidence of plaintiff tends to show that a negligent breach by defendant of its duty to exercise proper care to maintain the station platform in a reasonably safe condition was' the proximate
The objection urged against an instruction given at the request of plaintiff is not well taken. The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.