Howard v. Knutson
Decision Date | 13 November 1934 |
Citation | 77 S.W.2d 158,229 Mo.App. 267 |
Parties | LAWRENCE HOWARD, RESPONDENT, v. GERARD KNUTSON, APPELLANT |
Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court of Buchanan County.--Hon. Sam Wilcox Judge.
Reversed and remanded.
Randolph & Randolph for respondent.
Brown Douglas & Brown for appellant.
Plaintiff brought this suit to recover for the death of his wife caused by the alleged negligence of the defendant. The cause was tried. Plaintiff had a verdict and judgment in the sum of $ 2000. The defendant has appealed.
Plaintiff, on May 30, 1932, drove his automobile westward from the city of Brookfield, Missouri, on Highway 36 to the place of the accident which was near the city of St. Joseph, Missouri. His wife, son and grandson rode with him in the automobile. The defendant at the time in question was engaged under contract with the state highway commission of Missouri in constructing a bridge where Highway 36 crossed a drainage ditch. A detour from the highway proper extended from a point east of the bridge to a point west of it. There was a barricade across the highway at a point 25 or 30 feet west of the east end of the detour. The plaintiff drove his automobile past the east end of the detour and it ran off the south side of the highway, east of the barricade, down a high embankment and caused the death of his wife. The negligence charged was (1) that defendant failed to give approaching travellers timely warning of the presence of the construction or detour; (2) failed to have lights at the barricade; (3) failed to have a watchman at either the detour or barricade to warn the travelling public, including plaintiff, of said construction work or detour "or of the dangerous condition of said highway at said place or of said detour thereat, though it was late in the evening of a rainy, dark, stormy and cloudy day, and large amounts of foggy steam and mist were constantly arising from said highway and detour;" (4) failed to construct "a strong and substantial guard or railing" along the sides of the highway extending from the detour to the barricade; (5) negligently caused and permitted large quantities of earth, dirt and foreign materials to be placed upon and to collect and remain upon said highway at and near the junction of said highway and detour. The answer was a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence. Plaintiff testified that he arrived at the place of accident about five to five-thirty o'clock in the evening; that the day was rainy, the pavement at the detour was muddy and slick; that as he approached the detour he was going twenty to twenty-five miles an hour; that there was "fog and steam from the pavement;" that the barricade was twenty-five or thirty feet west of the detour.
"I seen a sign of the detour there on the barricade for it and I turned off to the south and went to turn off there and I missed the turn in some way or other and did not get onto the pavement--detour."
He further testified in direct examination that he did not see any signs or light or warning that there was a detour, and that there was no fence along either side of the highway between the barricade and the detour.
In this cross-examination is the following:
At the close of the evidence the defendant requested the court to tell the jury that plaintiff had failed to show that defendant was guilty of any negligence, and that the verdict should be in favor of the defendant. The instruction was refused and plaintiff assigns error to the ruling. In ruling the question we will accept the evidence of plaintiff as true.
Plaintiff testified that he was going twenty to twenty-five miles per hour; that he saw a detour sign fifty feet east...
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