Sawyer v. Hannibal & St. Joseph R.R. Co.

• Citation: 37 Mo. 240
• Parties: ORLANDA AND AMANDA SAWYER, Respondents, v. THE HANNIBAL AND ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellant.
• Decision Date: 28 February 1866
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

37 Mo. 240

ORLANDA AND AMANDA SAWYER, Respondents,

v.THE HANNIBAL AND ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

Febuary Term, 1866.

Appeal from Buchanan Circuit Court.

On the 19th day of August, 1862, respondents commenced suit in the Circuit Court of Buchanan county, to recover the sum of $15,000 for injuries which Amanda, wife of Orlando Sawyer, received on the night of the 3d of September, 1861. Respondents state that said Amanda was a passenger on appellant's railroad by virtue of a contract, and that the train of cars on which she was a passenger was precipitated into Platte river at a point where the appellant's road crosses said stream in Buchanan county; that the disaster was caused by the negligence, recklessness and unskillfulness on the part of the agents of the appellant in conducting and managing the train on which she was a passenger from Palmyra to the appellant's depot in St. Joseph; that appellant's road was defective and insufficient by reason of the railroad bridge spanning Platte river having been destroyed between the hours of one and five o'clock P. M. on the day aforesaid, and that by reason of the negligence and unskillfulness of the agents of the appellant and the insufficiency of said railroad and bridge the said respondent was injured in the head, shoulders and other portions of the body, destroying her health and rendering her incapable of performing any sort of labor whatever.

The appellant denied that the train of cars described in the respondents' petition was run carelessly, recklessly or at full speed at the time and place alleged in said petition. Appellant admitted that the bridge across Platte river on its railroad was destroyed at the time said train of cars approached, ran and was precipitated into said river; but alleged that some time in the evening or prior to the regular passenger train of that day, to-wit, the 3d day of September, 1861, bound west from Hannibal to St. Joseph, a band of armed men, enemies to the Government of the United States and the provisional Government of the State of Missouri, who had rebelled against and thrown off their allegiance to said governments, drove off the agents and employees of appellant on that part of said railroad where said bridge was standing, and set fire to and burned down said bridge, and whilst it was burning and after it was burned down, until the arrival of said train at the place where said bridge stood, guarded it, and that part of appellant's railroad where said bridge had stood, so as to prevent, and actually did prevent, any of appellant's agents or employees from giving warning or notice to the conductor or other agents or employees on said train. Appellant avers that by reason of the premises said train was run and precipitated into Platte river where said railroad crosses said river, and where said bridge had stood, although said train of cars was well manned and equipped, and the conductor in charge of said train of cars and the employees on it well, carefully and skilfully performed and discharged their respective duties in conducting, running and managing said train of cars; that said train of cars was run and precipitated into said river as aforesaid without any negligence, unskillfulness, misconduct or fault on the part of the appellant, its officers, agents and servants, and could not have been prevented by any vigilance, diligence, practice, agency or foresight of appellant, its officers, agents or servants; that said accident to said train of cars is the same accident of which respondents complain in their petition against appellant. Appellant says that the defect and insufficiency, complained of in respondents' petition is not a negligent defect and insufficiency, and denies that said respondent Amanda sustained any damage in consequence of any negligence and unskillfulness of appellant, its officers, agents or servants, as is alleged in the respondents' petition.

The evidence on the part of the respondents tended to show that the bridge across Platte river on appellant's road was burned down about 5 o'clock P. M. on the 3d day of September, 1861; that the respondent Amanda Sawyer was a passenger upon the train bound west that day to St. Joseph; that it arrived at Platte river about 11 o'clock at night, and ran and was precipitated into Platte river; that in consequence thereof she received a good many bruises and a scalp wound on her head; her shoulders and arms were bruised, but no fractures of any kind. The scalp wound was the principal one. She did not seem to have good use of her arms; she could get up, stand up and walk; she was attended about ten days by a physician in St. Joseph, who testified that “the scalp wound as well as all such scalp wounds are very easily cured, heal up and get well very readily as a general thing, and I saw nothing about this to prevent such a result; and when I quit attending the plaintiff, my opinion was she would soon get well; the wounds upon the arms and shoulders I considered only upon the muscles, not serious; but her nervous system received a great shock from the jar she received.” She admitted on her way from St. Joseph and on the Sunday after she got home, that she was not seriously hurt. She commenced teaching school in two or three months after the accident, walking to and from the school-house, a distance between a quarter and a half mile.

The evidence on the part of the appellant tended to show that the country all along the line of the appellant's railroad was at the time of the accident in question, and had been for several months prior thereto, in a state of rebellion and open war with the Government of the United States, and the Provisional Government of Missouri established in July preceding; that the great mass of the citizens along the line of said railroad were hostile to the Government of the United States and the Provisional Government of Missouri and in sympathy with the rebels; that the officer, agents and employees on said railroads, as a class, were loyal to the Government, State and National, and gave their aid and influence in favor of the Federal and State Governments in the great struggle with treason; that said railroad after the inauguration of hostilities was used almost daily, on some part of the line, in transporting Federal troops and munitions of war over it; that in consequence thereof the appellant, and its officers, agents and employees, incurred the most bitter and unrelenting animosity of the rebels and their sympathisers, and by way of retaliation they perpetrated, almost daily, acts of hostility upon the appellant's railroad and the agents and employees on the same, such as burning cars, bridges and culverts, tearing up the track, sawing ties, &c., and firing into passenger trains, commencing June, 1861, and continuing from that until the burning of the bridge across Platte river, on the afternoon of September the 3d, 1861; but nearly all of these depredations and acts of hostility had been done on the eastern division of said road; that the western division had been regarded as comparatively safe for trains and passengers during all of this period, there never having been any disturbance on the railroad so near to St. Joseph as the bridge across Platte river, prior to said accident; that the passengers on the train in question were well aware of the state of the country and condition of things along appellant's railroad.

That a few days prior to the said accident a considerable body of armed rebels had rendezvoused about 13 to 15 miles north of the bridge across Platte river, and their camp was known as “Patton's Camp;” also a considerable body of armed rebels had rendezvoused about 6 miles south of said bridge, and their camp was known as “Gibson's Camp.” Small bands of armed men were constantly passing to and from these camps on the east and west sides of said bridge, reconnoitering, watching and reporting the movements of trains upon the appellant's railroad; that the demeanor of these bands was so menacing and terrifying as to completely overawe the citizens in the immediate vicinity of the bridge, who had any proclivities for the Government; that they were afraid to go away from their homes so as to give any information to the agents and employees of appellant of the burning of said bridge, lest they should be killed for so doing; and said bands had threatened and so terrified the section hands on the section extending to the bridge on the east side, and whose duty it was to watch the bridge and see that it was safe, that they refused on the day before the accident to go over that part of the section lying between Easton (3 1/2 miles east of bridge) and the bridge, the greatest portion of the distance being through timber and brush, which afforded good lurking-ground for the bushwhackers to way-lay and shoot them.

The bridge was burned down by a band of 12 or 14 armed men between 2 and 5 o'clock in the evening of the 3d of September, 1861. They guarded the railroad in the vicinity of the bridge from the time they went to it until after the accident in question, which took place about 11 o'clock at night, so that there was no possible chance for any agent or employee to have gone to the bridge and ascertained that it was burned down, without running a great risk of losing his life. Three or four of these armed men were seen on the western abutment, looking down upon the wreck, after the disaster, and were called upon by the mail agent to come down and assist him and the baggage master (the only two on the train capable of rendering assistance to the wounded and dying) in extricating the passengers from the wreck; but they never said a word--rendered no assistance. After the mail agent and baggage master had extricated all they could from the wreck, and then started towards St. Joseph for a relief train, these men struck out in a northwesternly direction. These men found several ties thrown...