Becker v. Lincoln Real Estate & Building Co.

• Decision Date: 18 March 1903
• Citation: 73 S.W. 581,174 Mo. 246
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Parties: BECKER v. LINCOLN REAL ESTATE & BUILDING CO.

73 S.W. 581

174 Mo. 246

BECKER v. LINCOLN REAL ESTATE & BUILDING CO.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

March 18, 1903.

CARRIERS—ELEVATORS—DUTY OF PASSENGER —DUTY OF CARRIER—TIME FOR ALIGHTING.

1. It is the duty of a passenger in an elevator to use ordinary care to keep from being hurt.

2. A carrier by elevator is not an insurer, but is required to exercise the highest degree of care.

3. There is no distinction in law between the duties and liabilities of a carrier by elevator and one by railroad.

4. A carrier by elevator must allow reasonable time for passengers to enter and leave the car with safety in the exercise of ordinary care.

5. Plaintiff averred that she was received as a passenger in defendant's elevator, to be carried to the fourth floor, and was injured by reason of the negligence of the operator in not allowing her a reasonable time to alight at that floor. There was no conflict in the evidence that she was not allowed a reasonable time to alight, but defendant set up that she was allowed a reasonable time in which to indicate a desire to alight, and did not do so. Held, that the rule that plaintiff cannot count on one cause of action, and recover on another, especially when proof of the latter necessarily negatives the existence of the former, did not apply.

6. When one passenger in an elevator directs the operator to stop at a certain floor, it is not necessary for every other passenger who desires to get off there to repeat the direction; but it is the operator's duty to stop long enough for the passenger giving the direction, and any other passengers who desire so to do, to alight.

7. It is the operator's duty, before again starting the car, to use reasonable care to ascertain if there are other persons in the act of getting off.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; W. Zachritz, Judge.

Action by Lucille Becker against the Lincoln Real Estate & Building Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

This is an action for $15,000 damages for personal injuries received by the plaintiff on April 10, 1900, while a passenger in one of the defendant's elevators in its building on the corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets in St. Louis. The petition alleges that she entered the elevator "to be carried as such passenger to the fourth floor of said building, and to be there allowed an opportunity to alight from said elevator. Yet the plaintiff avers that whilst said elevator was stopped at said fourth floor of said building to enable passengers to alight from said elevator, and whilst the plaintiff was proceeding to alight from said elevator whilst so stopped, and before she had time or opportunity to so alight from said elevator, defendant's servant in charge of said elevator negligently caused and suffered said elevator to be started upward, whereby the plaintiff was caused to be jerked, and fell, so that" she was seriously injured. The answer is a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence. There were a verdict and a judgment for the defendant, and plaintiff appealed.

The following statement of the case by appellant's attorney is a fair summary of what was shown on the trial by the testimony, and is therefore adopted: "The action is grounded upon the theory that the respondent was on the 10th day of April, 1900, the proprietor of an office building at the southwest corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets in the city of St. Louis. The respondent rented out the various offices in the building, which were occupied by professional and other business occupants, wherein persons were invited to transact business. The respondent operated a number of elevators in the building to carry passengers from the ground to the various floors above. The elevator in question was one of the elevators so operated by the respondent. On the fourth floor of respondent's said building, H. R. Hall, an attorney, occupied an office as a tenant of the respondent. The appellant on the 10th day of April, 1900, entered said building in company with Mr. Hall on her way to his office for the transaction of business with him. They entered from Chestnut street, which was the main entrance to the building. They entered the second elevator, counting from the east; appellant being waved into the elevator by Mr. Hall, the escort, and entering the elevator ahead of Mr. Hall. As the elevator approached the fourth floor, Mr. Hall called for the elevator to stop at the fourth floor, and the elevator did stop properly at the fourth floor to discharge passengers. Mr. Hall, who stood nearer the door than appellant, stepped out first, and appellant was following immediately behind— close enough to touch him with her hand. When appellant was in the door of the elevator, and, as she thinks, with one foot extending from the elevator floor to the floor of the corridor, the elevator started up with full speed; the appellant was caused to fall back into the elevator, probably by the jerk given by the elevator's rapid movement; and, by being pulled back by the elevator operator in her fall, one of her feet was caught and crushed between the elevator floor and the grating of the doors of the elevator, and the bone of her ankle was broken. The ligaments, arteries, and tendons of her foot were ruptured and crushed. After she sank to the floor of the elevator, a passenger, Mr. Mason, clerk for the Wabash Railroad, sustained her head upon his knee. The elevator stopped between the fifth and sixth floors. Appellant was carried down in the elevator to the basement, placed in a chair in the engine room, and thence removed to her home. Her injuries are serious and permanent, as shown by the record, but, for the purpose of this hearing, need not be further detailed. She is crippled and disabled, suffered great pain, and incurred and will incur large expenses in seeking relief. The above is the substantial version of the case as told by the plaintiff and her witnesses Dr. Crosswhite, Dr. Hart, H. R. Hall, and Charles P. Mason. The evidence for the respondent tended to contradict that for the appellant, in that the witness Hiram Ogden testified, for respondent, that he was the conductor of the elevator; that he got the signal to stop at the fourth floor to let off passengers; that he did stop the elevator at that floor, and that Mr. Hall got off; that after Mr. Hall got off, he looked around to see if other passengers wanted to get off, and, seeing no movement by any other passenger, he closed the doors of the elevator, and then started the elevator up, and that after the doors of the elevator were closed, and after the elevator had started up, and had gotten three or four feet above the floor of the corridor, the appellant rushed at the door, and that he threw his arm out and threw her back; and that, in falling, `somehow' she caught her foot between the floor of the elevator and the grating of the doors, and was injured. The doors opened and closed automatically; frequently used the hand in closing. The statement of the other witness contained in the application for continuance tended to corroborate the evidence of the conductor, and the conductor and elevator starter testified that after the injury, whilst the appellant was in the engine room, she said it was not the conductor's fault. This statement was contradicted by Mr. Hall and the plaintiff."

The plaintiff concedes that the evidence is conflicting upon the essential issues of negligence and contributory negligence,...