Houfburg v. Kansas City Stock Yards Co. of Maine

• Decision Date: 12 September 1955
• Docket Number: No. 1,No. 44526,44526,1
• Citation: 283 S.W.2d 539
• Parties: Holland HOUFBURG, Respondent, v. KANSAS CITY STOCK YARDS COMPANY OF MAINE and Melvin F. Hart, Appellants
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 539

283 S.W.2d 539

Holland HOUFBURG, Respondent, v. KANSAS CITY STOCK YARDS COMPANY OF MAINE and Melvin F. Hart Appellants.

No. 44526.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

Sept. 12, 1955.

Motion to Remand or for Rehearing or to Transfer to Court en

Banc Denied and Opinion Modified on Court's Own

Motion Oct. 11, 1955.

Opinion on Rehearing Modified on Court's Own Motion and

Motion to Set Aside Modified Opinion and for

Rehearing or to Transfer to Court en

Banc Denied Nov. 14, 1955.

Roscoe C. Van Valkenburgh, Wilfred Wimmell, Kansas City, for appellants, Brenner, Van Valkenburgh & Wimmell, Kansas City, of counsel.

Lyman Field, Rogers, Field & Gentry, Bernadine C. LeBerthon, Kansas City, for respondent.

HOLMAN, Commissioner.

Action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff, Holland Houfburg (respondent) on September 21, 1949, while he was in the performance of his duties as an employee of Producers Commission Association at the Kansas City Stockyards. He obtained a verdict and judgment for $50,000 against the defendants Kansas City Stock Yards Company and Melvin F. Hart, its maintenance supervisor. The defendants have duly appealed.

For about two months prior to the accident plaintiff had worked for Producers as a yardman. His duties included the yarding, handling and watering of cattle. On the morning in question he had just completed cleaning the trough in pen 37-36 and refilling it with water. As he started to climb upon the fence the heavy trough was in some manner tipped over and plaintiff's left leg was caught between the trough and a feed manager. This, according to the evidence may have been caused by plaintiff's weight thereon in his effort to boost himself upon the fence, or it may have been pushed over by the cattle. The injuries received by plaintiff were very painful and serious, resulting in some permanent disability. However, the view we take of the case makes it unnecessary to describe his injuries in any detail.

There was evidence from which the jury could have found that certain employees of Producers had notified the maintenance department of the Stock Yards Company three days before the accident that the trough was loose (wobbly) and needed repairing. Plaintiff's main instruction predicated liability upon a finding that the trough was not reasonably safe, in that it was not securely anchored to the fence and was unstable and likely to fall; that said condition had been reported to defendants and that they had had sufficient time and opportunity to repair same and negligently failed to do so and failed to maintain and place said trough in a reasonably safe condition.

Almost a year after the injury plaintiff settled his claim for workmen's compensation benefits against Producers and its insurer. Thereafter, this suit for damages was instituted.

At the outset defendants urge that the trial court erred in overruling their motions for a directed verdict. They argue that the injury occurred in a pen that had been leased to Producers and that the alleged failure of defendant Stock Yards Company to perform its contractual obligation to make repairs would not support an action in tort for personal injuries that may have resulted therefrom.

It appears that the relationship of landlord and tenant existed between the Stock Yards Company and Producers. This was substantially admitted by the parties since plaintiff alleged in his petition, and defendants admitted in their answers, that 'defendant Kansas City Stock Yards Company leased various of its pens to various commission companies and concerns, including plaintiff's employer * * *.' The only substantial evidence of the details of the rental agreement came from Mr. Dillingham, the president of the Stock Yards Company, who testified that in September, 1949, the Company had an oral 'leasing agreement' with Producers whereby office space and 106 pens were provided for a rental of $285 a month, plus a charge per head on each head of livestock placed in the pens. He stated that his company agreed to make repairs when notified and requested to do so and would make same at a time convenient to Producers. Likewise, it was agreed that the pens would be cleaned upon request, this being required about once a week. This witness further stated that Producers had full control of the cattle after they were unloaded from the truck or railroad car. They could place them in any pen within their leased space and had the right to exclude employees of the Stock Yards Company from the pens. Jeremiah Galvin, a former employee of Producers, said that these were Producers' pens and when they had cattle to put in them no one else could get in there. He stated, however, that if the pens were empty others would come in and yard cattle in them. Herman Smith, an employee of Producers, testified that Producers had had these pens (including 37-36) during the 12 years or more that he had worked there.

A landlord, in the absence of a contract so to do, is under no obligation to make repairs to the rented premises. Mahnken v. Gillespie, 329 Mo. 51, 43 S.W.2d 797. In the instant case the Stock Yards Company (landlord) did agree to make repairs upon request. However, defendants point out that since the case of Kohnle v. Paxton, 268 Mo. 463, 188 S.W. 155, it has been well established in this state that a landlord cannot be held liable in tort for personal injuries received by a tenant, or one rightfully on leased premises, as a result of the landlord's breach of his covenant to repair. The tenant alone has a cause of action and that is one for damages for breach of the contract. Lahtinen v. Continental Building Co., 339 Mo. 438, 97 S.W.2d 102; Turner v. Ragan, Mo.Sup., 229 S.W. 809; Grimmeissen v. Walgreen Drug Stores, Mo.App., 229 S.W.2d 593; Home Owners' Loan Corporation v. Huffman, 8 Cir., 124 F.2d 684; Norris v. Walker, 232 Mo.App. 645, 110 S.W.2d 404; Davis v. Cities Service Oil Co., Mo.App., 131 S.W.2d 865. For an analogous situation, see Lowery v. Kansas City, 337 Mo. 47, 85 S.W.2d 104.

We have carefully considered plaintiff's pleadings, proof, submission, and his brief in this court and conclude that it is plaintiff's contention that, while conceding that there was a rental arrangement whereby the Stock Yards Company rented certain facilities (including stock pens) to Producers, and conceding further that such rental or lease arrangement did in one sense constitute a landlord-tenant relationship between the Stock Yards Company and Producers, nevertheless, the arrangement under the instant circumstances was not a 'mere' landlord-tenant relationship and therefore the law relating to a lessor's tort liability for breach of an agreement to repair is not applicable. The reason advanced by plaintiff for the inapplicability of the aforementioned rule is that under the terms and provisions of The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, 7 U.S.C.A. Sec. 201 et seq., the defendant Stock Yards Company is a public utility required by said law to furnish reasonable stockyard services and hence is liable for its negligence in carrying out that duty. No case is cited wherein a stockyard owner has been held liable in tory under facts such as exist in the instant case. To support his contention plaintiff relies mainly upon the specific provisions of the Act and somewhat general statements contained in various cases construing it. We will therefore examine that Act to determine whether there is anything therein which creates any duty as between the Stock Yards Company and plaintiff which was breached by said Stock Yards Company.

The Packers and Stockyards Act was enacted in order to remedy abuses that had grown up in the large stockyards of the country in that packers, stockyards owners, commission men and dealers were engaging in unfair, monopolistic and discriminatory practices, the details of which need not be related here. The Act provides: 'It shall be the duty of every stockyard owner and market agency to furnish upon reasonable request, without discrimination, reasonable stockyard services at such stockyard * * *.' 'All rates * * * shall be just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory * * *.' 'It shall be the duty of every stockyard owner and market agency to establish, observe, and enforce just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory regulations and practices in respect to the furnishing of stockyard services * * *.' Sections 205, 206, 208. The Secretary of Agriculture is given broad regulatory powers over the rates, charges and practices of stockyard owners and market agencies.

In Stafford v. Wallace, 258 U.S. 495, 42 S.Ct. 397, 402, 66 L.Ed. 735, 23 A.L.R. 229, the Act was held valid and the court, after discussing the background of the legislation, stated: 'The act, therefore, treats the various stockyards of the country as great national public utilities to promote the flow of commerce from the ranges and farms of the West to the consumers in the East. It assumes that they conduct a business affected by a public use of a national character and subject to national regulation.'

It should be here noted that a stockyards company is not granted a franchise by the state or federal government and it does not necessarily have a monopoly. However, as we have already shown, the business is affected with a public use and is a proper subject for regulation because of its public nature. Stafford v. Wallace, supra.

We have indicated the general purposes of The Packers and Stockyards Act. 'Congress had no intention of regulating the entire business of the livestock and meat industry. Certainly there is no indication in the history of the legislation, in the Act itself or the interpretation of it by the courts that justifies the conclusion that the Act was designed to supersede local laws pertaining to the well established principles of agency, sales of personal property, chattel mortgages and many other branches of the law. * * * the conduct prohibited always is...