Tanner v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.
Tanner v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
— This is an action by the widow of Samuel Tanner to recover damages for his death resulting from injuries which he received at a street crossing in Poplar Bluff in October, 1912. The jury returned a verdict for $3500 upon which judgment was entered and defendant has appealed. The passenger train which caused Tanner’s death was northbound and about thirty minutes late. Deceased, seventy-two years of age, about 3:3Q in the morning, was driving a team hitched to his wagon on the road leading to this crossing from the south and just before passing onto defendant’s track the wagon road leads to the west. He came from the south and was passing over the crossing to the west. There were four sets of railroad tracks at this crossing east of the track upon which defendant’s train was running, the latter-being by us designated as track five, the vertex in a rather sharp curve to the west of which is a short
“You are instructed that plaintiff has failed to allege any facts in the petition authorizing the recovery of compensatory damages therefore, if your verdict should be for plaintiff it must not exceed the sum of two thousand dollars.”
The contention here is that the court should declare as a matter of law that the deceased was guilty of such contributory negligence as to bar any right of recovery on the part of the plaintiff and that the defendant’s instruction, above quoted, should have been given. We have decided that both of these contentions should be ruled against the defendant.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary the presumption must prevail in this case that deceased in passing over this crossing was exercising proper care; that he looked and listened where it was his duty to do these things, or either of them. [Weller v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul R. Co., 164 Mo. 180, 198, 64 S. W. 141; Riska v. Union Depot R. Co., 180 Mo. 168, 188, 79 S. W. 445; Powers v. St. Louis Transit Co., 202 Mo. 280, 100 S. W. 655 and Weigman v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, 223 Mo. 699, 718, 123 S. W. 38.]
There is no evidence in this case that justifies a holding by us that the general presumption was so completely overcome as to authorize a demurrer to the testimony. One witness testified that deceased looked both directions when, or soon after, going on the first track. His view of the appro aching train was obstructed by the box cars; the street light subdued to a debatable extent the light from the train, which owing to the convexity of the track was not cast parallel with it, except, possibly, when the engine was within a very short distance of the crossing. The train was making very little noise, in fact the engineer’s testimony, as above noticed, discloses by his ability to “hear lots of noise” caused by the team walking on the boards, that the train was not likely making sufficient noise for deceased to have heard it or located the track it was on had he listened. This feature of the ease brings it directly in line with the Weigman case, supra, wherein the only variation is that there the party could not likely hear the approach
Respondent suggests that the duty of deceased to look and listen existed only before he entered upon the east track and that he, it not having been shown that he knew upon what track through trains ran, should not be required to stop and listen between each track, but it is not necessary for us to discuss that question as there is no conclusive proof that he did not discharge the duty to look and listen, or one of these if either would have been effective, if such duty developed upon him along the full length of the crossing.
The defendant is in no position to complain of the refusal of the trial court to give an instruction requested by it and quoted above, for the reason that the issue at which it was aimed was brought into the case by testimony that' went to the jury without objection and, therefore, constituted nothing more than a variance which should have been taken advantage of by an affidavit of surprise as contemplated by section 1846', Revised Statutes 1909, if defendant considered that it was not prepared to meet the issue. [Thornton v. American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co., 178 Mo. App. 38, 42, et seq., 163 S. W. 293.]
The objections made by the defendant, herein-before noticed, amount to nothing. They are too general, are mere epithets and indicate no reason for their interposition. [State ex rel. West v. Diemer, 255 Mo. 336, 350.] Besides, we cannot say that the knowledge of the age or condition of the health of the deceased would not have been of some aid to the jury in considering his alleged contributory negligence, and therefore, could not be condemned as wholly irrelevant and immaterial for all purposes.
The judgment is affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
CONCURRING OPINION.
— I concur fully on the question of contributory negligence being one for the jury. On the question of damages, the petition, the evidence admitted and the instructions given are in accord with my views of the proper construction of section 5425, Revised Statutes 1909, and are not in conflict with the .last Boyd case, 249 Mo. 110, 155 S. W. 13), and no question of waiver by failing to make proper objections to the evidence or failure to ask an instruction to separately estimate the penal and compensatory damages is necessary to a proper decision of this case. Those interested may read my reasons in my concurring opinion filed in the Harshaw case, 173 Mo. App. 468, 159 S. W. 3, and in my dissenting opinion in the Johnson case, 178 Mo. App. 457, 163 S. W. 899.
Concurring Opinion
CONCURRING OPINION.
— I concur in the opinion of Robertson, P. J., but desire to express my views with reference to the question raised by appellant concerning the admissibility of testimony going to the compensatory feature of the verdict.
The petition is based on the statute, section 5425, Revised Statutes 1909. The Supreme Court held in the last Boyd case (Boyd v. Railway Co., 249 Mo. 110, 155 S. W. 13) as I construe the opinion therein (see Harshaw v. Railroad, 173 Mo. App. l. c. 478-485, 159 S. W. l. c. 6-9, and Johnson v. Springfield Traction Co., 178 Mo. App. 445, 163 S. W. 893), that the damages recoverable under this statute are both penal and compensatory. If that is true, I take it that a petition based on that statute would call for both penal and compensatory damages and that under such a pleading testimony would be admissible concerning pecuniary loss. The instruction asked by the plaintiff as to the measure of damages follows the one given in the Boyd case. The defendant asked no instruction on the measure of damages except the one set out in the main opinion and that instruction shows on its face that it is based on the ground that the petition did not authorize a recovery of compensatory damages. In view of the fact that the instruction which was given for the plaintiff permitted the jury to allow two thousand dollars as penalty and fifteen hundred dollars as compensatory damages, and in view of the further fact that no instruction was asked by the defendant limiting the penalty to two thousand dollars, I thing the verdict falls clearly within the law as declared in the opinion in the last Boyd case allowing two thousand dollars
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.