Bensiek v. St. Louis Transit Co.

Decision Date14 May 1907
PartiesBENSIEK v. ST. LOUIS TRANSIT CO. et al.
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals

Appeal from Circuit Court, St. Louis County; J. W. McElhinney, Judge.

Action by Sophia Bensiek against the St. Louis Transit Company and another. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal. Reversed as to defendant the United Railways Company and affirmed as to the St. Louis Transit Company.

Boyle & Priest, Geo. W. Easley, and E. T. Miller, for appellants. Albert A. Hausman and Robt. Shackleford, for respondent.

NORTONI, J.

The suit is for damages to plaintiff's team, a wagon and harness, occasioned by a street car having collided therewith. The petition is in proper form. Its allegations support, and the evidence tended to prove, the following facts: Plaintiff, who is the proprietor of a livery stable in the city of St. Louis, owned the team, wagon, and harness mentioned, and the same was in charge of her driver on the night in question. He was seated in the front end of the wagon, driving the team north on South Broadway, toward the city, immediately outside the city limits in St. Louis county, when a street car, operated by the defendant St. Louis Transit Company, running at from 12 to 15 miles per hour, from the south, collided with the rear end of the wagon, from which collision the wagon was demolished, one horse was killed, the other injured, and the harness practically destroyed. The night was dark. It had been raining and was then misting some. The plaintiff's driver was returning from St. Rose Hospital in the county near the city limits, about 10:30 p. m. He drove along the east side of South Broadway, a public thoroughfare, in which is located defendant's double car tracks, for probably 500 feet, until he reached a point where the recent rains had washed gullies along the side thereof, rendering it unsafe for travel. When he encountered the gullies, he drove on defendant's track occupied by its north-bound cars, which track was macadamized between the rails. Immediately before and while in the act of driving upon the track he looked to the south and listened for an approaching car, and, seeing none, continued to drive northward on the track at about five miles an hour, for a distance of 470 feet, when a north-bound car, running at from 12 to 15 miles an hour, collided with the rear end of the wagon, causing the damages sued for. The team was white. The wagon was what is termed an ordinary "undertaker's wagon." It was black, and seems to have been a covered wagon, with a door in the rear end, in which was a window about 12 inches wide and 2 feet high, and inside the wagon, immediately above the driver's seat, was a double reflector bull's-eye lantern. This lantern was lighted at the time. It reflected a white light in the front to the northward, and a red light about the size of a silver dollar toward the south, discernible through the window in the rear. One witness testified this red light was noticeable 300 feet, and another noticed it at the time of the collision for 150 feet from the rear. A street light was burning about 40 feet north and 5 feet east of the point of collision. The road and street car track was straight for a distance of 800 feet south, the direction from which the car approached. After having looked and listened, and neither seeing nor hearing a car, the plaintiff continued on the track for 470 feet, at 5 miles an hour, or, as calculated, about one minute, and during that interval he did not look a second time for danger prior to the collision. Defendant's tracks at the point mentioned incline to the northward slightly. The car was equipped with air brakes and also with other appliances for emergency stops. It contained no passengers nor was it otherwise loaded. An expert motorman testified it could have been stopped with the appliances at hand, under the conditions then prevailing at the point in question, with its air brake, when running at 12 miles per hour, in 85 to 90 feet. At the same speed, by using the emergency appliances, it could have been stopped in 45 feet. At the rate of 15 miles per hour it could have been stopped by...

To continue reading

Request your trial
3 cases
  • Acton v. Fargo & Moorhead St. Ry. Co.
    • United States
    • North Dakota Supreme Court
    • December 30, 1910
    ...as a matter of law for not looking for a car within a minute thereafter while driving 470 feet along the track. Bensiek v. St. Louis Transit Co., 125 Mo. App. 121, 102 S. W. 587. A street railway company is liable for injuries sustained by a collision between a vehicle and a car, where the ......
  • Bensiek v. St. Louis Transit Co.
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • May 14, 1907
  • Planters' Nut & Chocolate Co. v. Douglas Candy Co.
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • May 1, 1922
    ...admits every fact which the jury might infer if the evidence had been submitted to them and in support of this rule cite Bensiek v. Trans. Co., 125 Mo. App. 121. 102 S. W. 587; Von Trebra v. Laclede Gas Co., 209 Mo. 648, 108 S. W. 559. There can be no quarrel with this statement of the law,......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT