Chase v. Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co.

• Citation: 114 S.W. 1141,134 Mo. App. 655
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Decision Date: 07 December 1908
• Parties: CHASE v. ATCHISON, T. & S. F. RY. CO.

114 S.W. 1141

134 Mo. App. 655

CHASE v. ATCHISON, T. & S. F. RY. CO.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

December 7, 1908.

Rehearing Denied January 11, 1909.

1. CARRIERS (§ 286) — CARRIAGE OF PASSENGERS — CONDITION OF PREMISES — STATION GROUNDS.

A carrier is not an insurer of the safety of its premises, but where it invites public patronage, and maintains a station as a place for transacting business with its patrons, it must exercise reasonable care to keep the station house, platforms, and approaches thereto in safe condition.

2. CARRIERS (§ 286) — CARRIAGE OF PASSENGERS—CONDITION OF PREMISES — DEVIATION FROM APPROACHES PROVIDED.

The liability of a carrier for the condition of the premises is the same as that of any person to another who has by invitation or inducement come upon his premises to transact business, and a person so coming has no implied invitation to deviate from passageways which the premises themselves show were prepared by the owner for that special use, and were intended to

mark out the only way by which the place of business might be approached.

3. CARRIERS (§ 320)—CARRIAGE OF PASSENGERS — CONDITION OF PREMISES — STATION GROUNDS—ACTION FOR INJURIES—QUESTION FOR JURY.

Whether a carrier, by maintaining a smooth graveled area between two roadways leading to its station, impliedly invited a pedestrian approaching the station to become a passenger to deviate from the roadways and cross the graveled area, held, under the evidence, to be for the jury.

4. CARRIERS (§ 320)—CARRIAGE OF PASSENGERS — CONDITION OF PREMISES — STATION GROUNDS—ACTION FOR INJURIES—QUESTION FOR JURY—NEGLIGENCE.

Whether a carrier was negligent in maintaining semaphore wires near the ground across a graveled area between two roadways leading to its station, constituting an obstruction to a person walking over the area, held, under the evidence, for the jury.

5. CARRIERS (§ 347)—CARRIAGE OF PASSENGERS — CONDITION OF PREMISES — STATION GROUNDS—ACTION FOR INJURIES—CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE.

Two roadways led to a railroad station from the public road. The area between the roadways was smoothly graveled, and semaphore wires crossed it near the ground. Plaintiff, approaching the station to take a train in the daytime, proceeded straight across the graveled area. He was not in haste, and, being familiar with the place, knew of the presence of the wires which he was compelled to cross. He was not inattentive, but for the moment forgot about the wires, and, as they were scarcely noticeable because of their color and nearness to the ground, he tripped over them and was injured. Held, that he was not negligent as matter of law.

6. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS (§ 805)—CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE — ACTS CONSTITUTING — FORGETTING KNOWN DEFECTS IN SIDEWALK.

The fact that a pedestrian forgets the existence of a defect in a sidewalk he is accustomed to travel and is injured thereby, while a circumstance to be considered on the question of his negligence, is not always conclusive evidence thereof; the controlling question being whether he was making the use of his senses of sight and hearing to be expected of an ordinarily careful person with his faculties.

Broaddus, P. J., dissenting.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; John G. Park, Judge.

Personal injury action by George M. Chase against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Lathrop, Morrow, Fox & Moore, for appellant. Gage, Ladd & Small, for respondent.

JOHNSON, J.

Plaintiff was injured on the station grounds of defendant railway company at Holliday, Kan., and alleges that his injury was caused by the negligence of defendant. The answer is a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff in the sum of $1,000, and the cause is here on the appeal of defendant.

Defendant's station at Holliday is on the north side of the tracks of its main line, which runs east and west. The town is southwest of the station. North of the station and running east and west is the track of a branch line of defendant's railroad. A platform adjoins the station building on the south, west, and north sides, and that on the south side extends some distance to the west. The space between this platform and the branch line track is level, and is paved with gravel for a distance of 60 feet west of the west platform. A wagon road connects Holliday with the station. Coming from the south, this road crosses all of the railroad tracks, then turns east, runs parallel with the branch line track to a point about opposite the east line of the graveled space, and then turns to the north. Two roadways for vehicles extend south from this wagon road into the graveled space. They are about 25 feet apart, and the east one enters the space at its eastern end. Both were paved with cinders and, where they crossed the branch track, were provided with suitable crossings. They were available to the use of pedestrians as well as of vehicles, but were not specially prepared for the former. Between the wagon road and the branch track, defendant maintained semaphore wires, buried where they crossed the two roadways just described, but in the intervening space, exposed at a height of two or three inches and unguarded. Cinders were placed in the space between them and the branch track, and the color and position of the wires rendered them almost invisible. Plaintiff came from Holliday in the daytime, in a wagon, for the purpose of departing on one of defendant's passenger trains. The vehicle did not enter the graveled space, and plaintiff...