Hays v. Missouri Pac. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 08 July 1957
• Docket Number: No. 45765,No. 2,45765,2
• Citation: 304 S.W.2d 800
• Parties: Ocie C. HAYS, Appellant, v. MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, a Corporation, Respondent
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 800

304 S.W.2d 800

Ocie C. HAYS, Appellant, v. MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, a Corporation, Respondent.

No. 45765.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

July 8, 1957.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 9, 1957.

Marvin Q. Silver, Milton Suffian, St. Louis, for appellant.

Harold L. Harvey, D. B. Sommers, Marvin Boisseau, Jr., St. Louis, for respondent.

STOCKARD, Commissioner.

In plaintiff's suit for $100,000 actual and $400,000 punitive damages for an alleged false imprisonment and a conspiracy to deprive her of her personal liberty, the trial court sustained defendant's motion for a directed verdict on plaintiff's opening statement and this appeal followed. The parties will be referred to as in the trial court.

The substance of the allegations of the petition is as follows: Plaintiff was a passenger aboard one of defendant's special 'deportation trains,' which commenced its journey on May 5, 1952, from Los Angeles, California, and traveled eastwardly across the United States to St. Louis, Missouri, arriving there on May 8. While plaintiff was a passenger on said 'deportation train' the defendant did wantonly, maliciously, unlawfully, and without warrant or legal cause or process restrain her personal liberty (1) by compelling her under duress and against her will by threats of violence to remain aboard the 'coach car' in which she was traveling, (2) by not permitting her to leave said car or train at any time during the trip, and (3) by compelling her to remain in her seat aboard the car at all times during the journey from Los Angeles to St. Louis. Defendant also unlawfully conspired to deprive plaintiff of and interfere with her personal liberty as a citizen of the United States 'in violation of her natural, inherent and absolute rights of personal liberty and her rights under the Constitution of the United States and her rights under the laws of the United States' by deporting her under restraint, imprisonment and duress, from one state of the United States to another without warrant or legal process. There is no allegation in the petition as to who were the other conspirators.

At the beginning of the trial it was stipulated by the parties that on May 7, 1952, at 11:00 p. m., the defendant 'did receive from the Atchison-Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, eight pullman cars which were ordered by the California State Department of Mental Hygiene and the California Youth Authority,' and that the 'said eight pullman cars, in the charge of the aforementioned authorities of the State of California were transported by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company from Kansas City, Missouri, at 11:00 P.M., May 7, 1952, arriving in St. Louis, Missouri, at 5:00 A.M. May 8, 1952, all transportation by Missouri Pacific being wholly within the State of Missouri.' It is stated that this stipulation is in 'lieu of and in substitution of' interrogatories served upon defendant, and also in lieu of plaintiff's 'notice to Produce.'

Subsequent to the entry of record of the above stipulation, plaintiff's counsel made his opening statement. By reason of the conclusion we reach on this appeal, it is not necessary that we set out completely the statement of plaintiff's counsel. It will suffice to say that it was vague and indefinite as to how or in what manner the defendant did any of the acts charged in the petition pertaining to the alleged false imprisonment, and that it contained no recital of material facts pertaining to the purportedly alleged conspiracy. The substance of the opening statement was that someone, presumably agents of the State of California, unlawfully placed plaintiff on a railroad car in Los Angeles; that against her will she was forced by use of armed guards to remain in the car and in the seat assigned to her while the car, locked from the outside, was transported to St. Louis, Missouri, where she was taken by ambulance to a hospital and then immediately released; and that defendant transported the car from Kansas City to St. Louis and knew of the illegal nature of plaintiff's confinement and restraint in the car.

The substance of plaintiff's contentions on this appeal is that the trial court was without authority to direct a verdict on an opening statement, and if it had the authority, it erred in doing so because (1) plaintiff is not limited in her proof to what she stated in her opening statement but may present evidence in support of 'the entire pleadings as set forth in her petition,' and (2) the opening statement contained a sufficient recital of the facts.

Plaintiff contends that Section 510.280 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., does not provide for a motion for directed verdict prior to the conclusion of plaintiff's evidence, and therefore, the trial court was without authority to direct a verdict on the opening statement. Section 510.280 abolishes the demurrer to the evidence and the request for peremptory instructions which were authorized prior to the present code of civil procedure, and it then provides that in lieu thereof a party may make a motion for a directed verdict. The only reference to the time of making such a motion is that a party who moves for a directed verdict at the close of the evidence offered by an opponent is not for that reason precluded from offering evidence in the event the motion is not granted. When the demurrer to the evidence and the request for peremptory instructions were authorized, this court recognized the right of a trial court to stop further proceedings when plaintiff's opening statement affirmatively disclosed that he was not entitled to maintain his cause of action or that he had no cause of action, and we see nothing in Section 510.280 which will preclude the continuation of that commendable practice. In Wood v. Wells, Mo.Sup., 270 S.W. 332, this court, quoting from Pratt v. Conway, 148 Mo. 291, 49 S.W. 1028, 1030, 71 Am.St.Rep. 602, said: "It has been ruled again and again that where counsel, in their opening statement, state or admit facts the existence of which precludes a recovery by their client, the courts may close the case at once, and give judgment against their client." See also City of St. Louis v. Babcock, 156 Mo. 154, 56 S.W. 731; Wonderly v. Little & Hays Inv. Co., Mo.App., 184 S.W. 1188; Waldron v. Skelly Oil Co., D.C., 101 F.Supp. 425. This is generally the rule in other jurisdictions. Oscanyan v. Winchester Repeating Arms Co., 103 U.S. 261, 26 L.Ed. 539; Best v. District of Columbia, 291 U.S. 411, 54 S.Ct. 487, 78 L.Ed. 882; Illinois Power & Light Corporation v. Hurley, 8 Cir., 49 F.2d 681, certiorari denied 284 U.S. 637, 52 S.Ct. 19, 76 L.Ed. 541. See also the cases from numerous state jurisdictions cited in the annotations in 83 A.L.R. 221 and 129 A.L.R. 559. 'The reason for the rule is apparent. If counsel admits he is unable to prove facts essential to a recovery, or to disprove facts fatal to a recovery, there is no need of going to the trouble and expense of hearing evidence which, it is known in advance, will be insufficient.' Carter v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 272 Ky. 392, 114 S.W.2d 496, 497. Plaintiff's contention that the trial court had no authority to direct a verdict for defendant on the opening statement of plaintiff is without merit.

An examination of the cases from this and other jurisdictions indicate that there are two general situations in which a trial court may direct a verdict in favor of the defendant on plaintiff's opening statement. The first situation exists when counsel makes an admission in his opening statement which affirmatively demonstrates as a matter of law that his client has no cause of action or is not entitled to recover on his cause of action. Examples of such cases are Wood v. Wells, supra (cause of collision was slipping on ice by defendant and not negligence of defendant); Wonderly v. Little & Hays Inv. Co., supra (previous settlement and release of claim); Oscanyan v. Winchester Repeating Arms Co., supra (suit on contract was prohibited by public policy); Hey v. Prime, 197 Mass. 474, 84 N.E. 141, 17 L.R.A.,N.S., 570 (cause of action did not survive to plaintiff); Crisup v. Grosslight, 79 Mich. 380, 44 N.W. 621 (suit on illegal contract). See also the cases cited in the annotations in 83 A.L.R. 221 and 129 A.L.R. 557. The opening statement in this case did not contain any admission which, if true, would as a matter of law preclude plaintiff from a recovery against defendant. Therefore, the cases which fall into this first group afford no direct precedent for the disposition of the issues on this appeal.

The second situation is represented by those cases wherein the facts recited by plaintiff's counsel in his opening statement which he intends or expects to prove would not, as a matter of law, constitute enough when established by evidence to make a submissible case to go to the jury. Examples of such cases are Carey v. Gray, 98 N.J.L. 217, 119 A. 176; Scarborough v. Central Arizona Light & Power Co., 58 Ariz. 51, 117 P.2d 487, 138 A.L.R. 866; Payne v. Louisville Ry. Co., 294 Ky. 160, 171 S.W.2d 253; Cahalane v. Dennery, 298 Mass. 34, 9 N.E.2d 396; Plotkin v....