Empiregas, Inc., of Noel v. Hoover Ball & Bearing Co.

• Decision Date: 08 April 1974
• Docket Number: No. 1,No. 57494,57494,1
• Citation: 507 S.W.2d 657
• Parties: EMPIREGAS, INC., OF NOEL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOOVER BALL & BEARING COMPANY et al., Defendants-Respondents
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 657

507 S.W.2d 657

EMPIREGAS, INC., OF NOEL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOOVER BALL & BEARING COMPANY et al., Defendants-Respondents.

No. 57494.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

April 8, 1974.

Neale, Newman, Bradshow & Freeman, O. J. Taylor, Joseph A. Bohrer, Springfield, for plaintiff-appellant.

Blackwell, Sanders, Matheny, Weary & Lombardi, Stephen T. Adams, Larry L. McMullen, Kansas City, Missouri for defendant-respondent, Hoover Ball & Bearing Co.

John M. Kilroy, Donald L. Shughart, John R. Caslavka, Kansas City, for defendants-respondents, American Potash & Chemical Corp. and Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp.; Shughart, Thomson & Kilroy, Kansas City, of counsel.

George M. Flanigan, McReynolds, Flanigan & Flanigan, Carthage, for defendant-respondent, Thiokol Chemical Corp.

SEILER, Judge.

This appeal involves the question of whether the petition for damages which is before us, states a claim upon which relief can be granted. The trial court held that the original petition and subsequently a first amended petition did not, and from the court's order of dismissal, the plaintiff has appealed. Jurisdiction is here because of the monetary amount involved, that being sufficient to confer jurisdiction at the time this appeal was taken, so that we retain and decide the case in accordance with the provisions in the schedule to the 1970 amendment to Art. V of the 1945 constitution. We reverse and remand.

The claim grows out of the explosion of a freight train. The petition alleges the corporate existence of plaintiff and that of four foreign corporations. The petition names eight individuals as defendants, who are alleged to have been 'at all times hereinafter mentioned, employees, agents and servants of the Kansas City Southern Railway Company.' ¹

The petition then alleges that on August 3, 1969, at or near Noel, Missouri, the aforesaid defendants 'had exclusive control or right of control over the locomotives, trains (including the consist or cars and equipment thereon and therein) track, roadbed, switches, and all other equipment of the Kansas City Southern Railway Company in its yards at Noel, Missouri, and the track and right-of-way to the north and south thereof, the installation and operation of safety devices, communications equipment and maintaining lookouts, and making and enforcing operating and safety rules, and also had exclusive control or the right of control over the management, transportation, dispatching and supervision of said train operations, including inspections of and accepting or rejecting interchange shipments of cars and cargo, and including the packing, inspecting, accepting or rejecting and transporting of volatile explosives, dangerous and combustible materials, and of the make-up and consist of said train . . .'

It is further alleged '. . . (t)hat plaintiff did not have any control or right of control over any of the above-named items, functions, operations, equipment or supplies . . .'

It is next alleged '(t)hat in the Town of Noel, Missouri, on said date, there was a series of sudden and violent explosions of one of the Kansas City Southern Railway Company's freight trains and the parts and components thereof, which occurred while said train was being moved maneuvered and operated under and by defendants active, sole control . . .'

It is next alleged that '. . . said explosions occurred without warning to plaintiff and were unusual, extraordinary, unnecessary and unanticipated by the plaintiff, and its occurrence would not, in the performance of the above functions on the part of defendants, be expected or would happen without the negligence of defendants . . . and the defendants possess knowledge and means of information as to the cause of said explosions superior to that of plaintiff.'

The petition goes on to state that the explosions and resulting damages to plaintiff were a direct result of the negligence of defendants.

The petition concludes by alleging damage to plaintiff's nearby buildings, offices, motor vehicles, storage tanks, etc. to the extent of $100,000 and loss of income and profits of $50,000.

The first amended petition was the same as the original, except for an allegation that the four defendant foreign corporations were subject to the jurisdiction of the court under Secs. 351.633 and 506.500, RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S., for the reason that said defendants committed a tort in the state of Missouri as set forth in the petition and an allegation that approximately fifty percent of the damage occurred on premises not owned by or leased from Kansas City Southern Railway Company. ²

The corporate defendants filed separate but substantially similar motions, contending the petitions failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, as well as attacking the court's jurisdiction, venue, process, and service of process. In general, the corporate defendants maintained they were not authorized to and did not do business in Missouri and had no contacts with this state, had no control or right of control over the train, tracks, equipment, etc., and had nothing to do with the routing or arrangements of the cars or cargo. The affidavit of the vice president of defendant Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation stated his company had a chemical plant in Nevada at which point it sold ammonium perchlorate to defendant Thiokol Chemical Corporation; that the chemical was loaded by Thiokol in bins on railroad cars furnished either by the United States government or by Thiokol, and shipped under bills of lading from a government ammunition plant in Texas under special permits of the Department of Transportation; that Kerr-McGee had no control over the bins, or the railroad, the routing of the train, or selection of the states through which the train would pass. Defendant Hoover Ball & Bearing Company stated that it manufactured containers being used on the train to transport materials, but averred that the containers had earlier been sold by them to defendant Thiokol and that defendant Hoover Ball & Bearing Company had no control over the containers or the train.

Defendants continue to assert that none of them could possibly have had any control over the operation of the railroad; that railroads are run by railroad companies and their employees and not by shippers or manufacturers; that their motions and affidavits show the defendant corporations were not doing business in Missouri, did not commit any tort here, had no control or right of control over the train or any portion thereof, have no superior knowledge as to the cause of the explosion, and that the corporation which did have control over the train, namely, the railroad company itself, it not even a defendant in the case.

After hearing argument and taking the motions under advisement, the trial court entered an order quashing service as to the corporate defendants and granting plaintiff leave to file an amended petition. The amended petition was filed, the motions were filed anew, and thereafter the court sustained the motions of the corporate defendants and ordered the first amended petition dismissed.

Defendants claim that all the trial court did was to quash service, which is a nonappealable order, Frank v. Sinclair Refining Co., 363 Mo. 1054, 256 S.W.2d 793 (1953), and that the appeal is therefore premature. It is true the court's order from which this appeal was taken does quash service, but it goes on to dismiss the petition, which, in our judgment, necessarily shows the court was ruling that the petition did not state a claim upon which relief could be granted, an order which is appealable, Frank v. Sinclair Refining Co., supra. Quashing service under the circumstances before the trial court was another way of saying that the petition did not state a claim upon which relief could be granted; this for the reason that for Sec. 351.633, supra, to be invoked, there must be a tort committed in Missouri in whole or in part by a foreign corporation against a resident or nonresident. To determine whether the service provisions of Sec. 351.633 can be used the petition must be examined. If it does not show on its face that the defendant has committed a tort in Missouri out of which the cause of action being asserted arises, attempted...