Finn v. Terminal R. Ass'n of St. Louis, 23893.

• Decision Date: 10 November 1936
• Docket Number: No. 23893.,23893.
• Citation: 97 S.W.2d 890
• Parties: FINN v. TERMINAL R. ASS'N OF ST. LOUIS et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

97 S.W.2d 890

FINN v. TERMINAL R. ASS'N OF ST. LOUIS et al.

No. 23893.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

November 10, 1936.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Eugene J. Sartorius, Judge.

"Not to be published in State Reports."

Action by Cynthia Johnson against the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and another, which was dismissed as to defendant St. Louis Merchants Bridge Terminal Railway Company during the trial. From an adverse judgment the defendant Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis appeals. Pending the appeal, Cynthia Johnson died, and Vesta Finn, administratrix of the estate of Cynthia Johnson, was substituted as plaintiff.

Affirmed.

T. M. Pierce, J. L. Howell, and Walter N. Davis, all of St. Louis, for appellant.

Eagleton, Waechter, Yost, Elam & Clark, of St. Louis, for respondent.

BENNICK, Commissioner.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries in which the original plaintiff, Cynthia Johnson, prevailed below. Pending the submission of the case in this court on appeal the death of Cynthia Johnson was suggested, and the cause was thereupon ordered to stand revived in the name of Vesta Finn, the duly appointed, qualified, and acting administratrix of her estate.

Mrs. Johnson's injuries were received when she was caused to fall on the steps leading down from the landing just inside the Eighteenth street entrance to Union Station in the city of St. Louis. Originally she joined as defendants both the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and the St. Louis Merchants Bridge Terminal Railway Company. During the trial of the case it was admitted that the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, which we shall henceforth refer to merely as the defendant, was alone the owner and in control of Union Station at the time of the accident in question, whereupon plaintiff voluntarily dismissed as to the St. Louis Merchants Bridge Terminal Railway Company.

There was a verdict and judgment in favor of plaintiff, and against defendant, in the sum of $2,700, and defendant's appeal to this court has followed in the usual course.

Mrs. Johnson, who was about 65 years of age at the time of the accident, was making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Finn, in the city of St. Louis. Two other daughters lived in Paragould, Ark., and it appears that Mrs. Johnson made frequent trips down to Paragould to visit them.

One of such trips had been planned for the night of March 8, 1931. Mr. Finn, who was Mrs. Johnson's son-in-law, had accompanied her to Union Station, where she expected to board a Cotton Belt train which was scheduled to leave shortly before midnight. They entered the station at the Eighteenth street entrance, from which a flight of steps led down into the midway adjoining the train sheds. Finn was carrying Mrs. Johnson's suitcase, so that she was left with nothing, but her hand bag in her hand. As she was in the act of stepping from the landing at the doorway down upon the first step, something caught against her heel, causing her to lose her balance and fall forward upon the steps, where she sustained a fracture of the left hip.

Mrs. Johnson was taken at once to the ladies' waiting room, and from there to the City Hospital in an ambulance, so that she had no occasion to know, nor, in the light of the injuries she received, would she have had any chance to have found out for herself, what it was that had caused her to fall. Finn testified, however, that while he was rendering assistance to Mrs. Johnson preparatory to her being taken to the waiting room, he looked back at the point on the landing from which she had fallen and saw a screw sticking out above the surface of the landing for the distance of half an inch. This screw, incidentally, was one of a series of screws which were used to fasten metal plates or treads to the steps, and was located about a foot and a half from the edge of the plate. It was rusty and corroded, so Finn testified, with dirt and corrosion apparent under the head of the screw and around the hole in the plate through which it protruded, and it was bent over somewhat in...