Eichhorn v. Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co.
| Citation | 32 S.W. 993,130 Mo. 575 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Missouri |
| Decision Date | 19 November 1895 |
| Parties | EICHHORN v. MISSOURI, K. & T. RY. CO. |
2. Defendant's passenger depot at a regular station having been burned, its trains were thereafter stopped at a public crossing, where there was no platform, and where the distance from the ground to the lowest step of the coaches was nearly three feet. Plaintiff, while attempting to board a coach to take passage, none of defendant's servants being present to assist her, fell, and was injured. Held, that the questions of negligence and contributory negligence were for the jury.
Appeal from circuit court, Cooper county; D. W. Shackleford, Judge.
Action by Hannah Eichhorn against the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company to recover for personal injuries. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.
Jackson & Montgomery, for appellant. J. R. Walker and Silver & Brown, for respondent.
This is an action to recover damages resulting from personal injuries received by the plaintiff, a married woman, in attempting to board one of defendant's passenger trains at Harriston station, on defendant's railroad, in Cooper county, Mo., on February 19, 1892. The petition alleges that on said 19th day of February, and for a long time prior thereto, the defendant had carelessly and negligently failed to construct and maintain any platform or provide any other means suitable and safe to enable passengers to get on and off the cars of the defendant at said station; that the plaintiff took passage on one of defendant's passenger trains at Harriston, to go to Pilot Grove; "that plaintiff was at the time pregnant with child, and while getting aboard of defendant's train as aforesaid, through the carelessness and negligence of the defendant in not having any platform or other suitable and safe means for getting onto defendant's said passenger train, the plaintiff, without any fault on her part, slipped from one of the steps of one of the cars in defendant's said passenger train, and was strained and wounded in the spine, and the right side and right arm, leg, and foot, by reason of which," etc., to her damage in the sum of $10,000, for which she asked judgment. The answer was a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence, to which the plaintiff replied in a general denial. Upon the trial, the plaintiff got a verdict and judgment for $3,000. Defendant, having unsuccessfully moved for a new trial, brings the case here by appeal.
At the trial the following facts were substantially established: The defendant had a station in Cooper county, called Harriston, at which it had constructed a depot on the west side of its road. The point where the depot building stood at the station was low ground, and the depot was built on piles. Harriston is a small village, of probably six or eight houses, all of which stand on the east side of the railroad, fronting on a street adjacent to and parallel with the right of way of the railroad. Some time in the month of September, 1891, this depot building was destroyed by fire. Thereafter the trains stopped at a point north of where the depot had stood originally, and at a place where a county road crossed the railroad track. At this point the evidence showed that it was from 30 inches to 3 feet from the ground to the lowest step on the passenger coaches. Harriston was a regular station on the line of this railroad. Two of their passenger trains — the one going north, at nearly noon, and the one going south, at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon — stopped regularly to receive and discharge passengers. No platform or other means of any kind had been erected or provided by the railroad company to aid passengers in getting on and off its cars after the depot was burned. A small pine box had at one time been placed by one of the neighbors on the west side of the track, that passengers might step on, in order to get on and off the cars. Some time prior to the 19th day of February, 1892, the wife of the witness Nixon had stepped on this box in attempting to get on the train, and had crushed it; and on the 19th day of February, and for some time prior thereto, this box had not been in use, and was not at the place. There was nothing in any way to designate the place for passengers to get on and off on either side of the road at this point. The county road crossed the railroad at this place. The ground on either side of the track was about the same, and it was apparently no safer to get on and off on one side of the track than the other, and the evidence tended strongly to show that, after the burning of the depot, passengers got on and off the train at this point on both sides of the road. The porters on the trains, when they would stop at Harriston station, would get down on either side, and help passengers on from whichever side they might be standing on, and would also help them off on either side. On the 19th day of February, 1892, the plaintiff, Mrs. Eichhorn, in company with a neighbor lady, Mrs. Meisel, started to take the train at Harriston station, for Pilot Grove, another station, a few miles distant, on the line of this road. This was about noon, and the regular passenger train stopped at the station. It was a damp and disagreeable day, and the plaintiff and Mrs. Meisel waited in the plaintiff's house for the arrival of the train. They did not leave the house until the train had approached very near to the place where it usually stopped. They were hurrying towards that place, when Mr. Sly, who was the postmaster, discovered them, and, thinking that they would be in danger of being hurt if they tried to cross to the west side, signaled, and called to them not to attempt to cross, but to remain on the east side. Mrs. Meisel testified that it was their intention to cross over to the west side, and there get on the train, and that they would have done so but for the warning of Mr. Sly and the nearness of the train; and because they were late, and did not think it safe to attempt to cross to the west side, they remained, and attempted to board the train from the east side. The plaintiff, however, testified that she did not intend to go over, or, rather, that she had not thought of that, because she did not like to get on on the other (west) side, because there were always people in the blacksmith shop looking at the ladies get on the cars, and she preferred to get on from the east side, so that her back would be towards those people. She admitted that it was a fact that she was late in getting out, but said that, if she had wanted to have gotten up on the west side, she could have gone around the train after it stopped. Mrs. Meisel preceded the plaintiff into the car, and boarded it without any difficulty. The plaintiff, in attempting to get on the train, took hold of the iron bar with her right hand, placed her right foot on the step, which was some 30 inches or 3 feet high, and, in attempting to get on the cars, she slipped, and fell from the steps, and, in falling, sprained her ankle, and twisted her body and spine, and the jar and shock seriously injured her, and caused her much suffering, and resulted in a permanent injury to the spine, which has produced a partial paralysis of her entire right side. She attempted to get on the cars from the east side, the side next to her home, which was only a little distance away. Plaintiff testified that she did not see either the conductor or porter of the train come out of the cars, or standing on either side of the train, at the time she attempted to get aboard. After her foot had slipped and she had fallen, she testified that the porter came out of the cars, stepped down on the east side, where she was standing, and aided her in getting aboard the cars. The evidence tends to show that, prior to this date, the plaintiff was a strong, healthy Norwegian woman, who, unaided, had done all of her own housework; and the evidence further shows that, immediately upon entering the car, she complained of having sprained her ankle; that her right foot began to swell, and so pained her that she was forced to unbutton her shoe. A few days afterwards she began to discover pains in her spine, just below the shoulders; and when she would attempt to lift any article of weight, or lean back suddenly in her chair, the pain in her spine was so intense that it would bring on spells of fainting and...
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