Bledsoe v. Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 16 February 1914
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Parties: BLEDSOE v. MISSOURI, K. & T. RY. CO.

164 S.W. 183

177 Mo. App. 153

BLEDSOE v. MISSOURI, K. & T. RY. CO.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

February 16, 1914.

1. RAILROADS (§ 441) — LIABILITY FOR INJURIES — FAILURE TO RING BELL OR SOUND WHISTLE—"CITY."

Under Rev. St. 1909, § 8527, providing that all cities and towns containing 500 and less than 3,000 inhabitants, and all towns existing under any special law and having less than 500 inhabitants, which shall elect to be cities of the fourth class, shall be cities of such class, and section 8528 providing that all towns not incorporated containing less than 500 inhabitants are villages, where no special law was asserted, it would be presumed that a place of

175 inhabitants was not a city, within section 3140, requiring a bell to be placed on each locomotive engine and rung at crossings, or a steam whistle to be attached and sounded at crossings, except in cities, though it appeared that it had passed ordinances and therefore must have been incorporated.

2. RAILROADS (§ 443)—INJURIES TO ANIMALS —ACTIONS FOR—QUESTIONS FOR JURY.

In an action for the value of a colt, struck by a train, evidence that the bell was not rung nor the whistle sounded, as required by statute, justified the jury in finding that, if such signals had been given, they might have attracted the attention of the colt and caused it to leave the tracks.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Boone County; D. H. Harris, Judge.

Action by A. C. Bledsoe against the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Joseph W. Jamison, of St. Louis, and C. B. Sebatian, of Columbia, for appellant. N. T. Gentry, of Columbia, for respondent.

ELLISON, P. J.

Plaintiff's action is to recover the value of a mare colt killed by one of defendant's trains at a road or street crossing in the village of Hartsburg, Boone county. The judgment was for plaintiff.

The negligence charged in the petition was that defendant ran its train without either ringing the bell or sounding the whistle 80 rods before reaching the crossing, as is required by section 3140, R. S. 1909. The evidence tended to sustain this allegation and that it caused the collision which killed the colt.

An instruction for plaintiff required defendant to either ring the bell or to sound the whistle and defendant contends that, the crossing being in the "town" of Hartsburg, it was not required by the statute to sound the whistle. It is true that by the terms of section 3140...