Limekiller v. Hannibal & St. J. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 07 January 1885
• Docket Number: 3292
• Citation: 33 Kan. 83,5 P. 401
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court
• Parties: JOHANNA LIMEKILLER, Administratrix, &c., v. THE HANNIBAL & ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD COMPANY

5 P. 401

33 Kan. 83

JOHANNA LIMEKILLER, Administratrix, &c., v. THE HANNIBAL & ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD COMPANY

NO. 3292

Supreme Court of Kansas

January 7, 1885

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Error from Atchison District Court.

ACTION brought by Johanna Limekiller, as administratrix of the estate of Frederick Limekiller, deceased, against the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, to recover $ 10,000 damages, alleged to have resulted from the gross and wanton negligence of the railroad company in running one of its locomotives and trains upon and against the said Frederick Limekiller, in Wyandotte county, in this state, on May 27, 1881, thereby wrongfully causing the death of the said Limekiller. The amended petition was filed March 26 1883. On May 4, 1883, the railroad company filed its answer as follows (omitting title and court):

"The said defendant, by B. F. Stringfellow, its attorney, comes and says that said defendant ought not to have or maintain her said action against defendant, because defendant, for answer to said amended petition, says:

"1st Defendant denies each and every allegation in said amended petition.

"2d. And for a second defense, defendant says, if Frederick Limekiller, named in said amended petition as plaintiff's intestate, was injured, as stated therein, such injury was not caused by any fault, negligence, or carelessness of said defendant or any of its employes or agents, but was caused by the negligence and carelessness of said Frederick Limekiller directly and materially contributing thereto.

"3d. And for a third defense, defendant says, that said plaintiff has not legal capacity to maintain said action.

"4th. And for its fourth defense, defendant says, that plaintiff, as administratrix of the estate of the said Frederick Limekiller, by appointment of the probate court of Platte county, in the state of Missouri, is prohibited by the law of said state from instituting or prosecuting said action, and by the express provisions of a statute law of said state as revised in 1879 and published by authority of said state, and in force at the time of the alleged death of said Frederick Limekiller, and at the time of the appointment of plaintiff as administratrix of the estate of said Frederick Limekiller, and at the time of the institution of this suit, and still in force, under the title, 'Of the Administration of the Estate of Deceased Persons;' and under §§ 94, 96 and 97 of article 5 of statute, the actions which may be brought by administrators are specified; and then by § 97 of said article, it is provided that the preceding section shall not extend to actions for slander, libel, assault and battery, or false imprisonment, nor to actions on the case, for injuries to the person of the plaintiff, or to the person of the testator or intestate of any executor or administrator; and so defendant avers that plaintiff is by such law, of said state of Missouri, prohibited from maintaining said action. Defendant therefore asks to be discharged with costs."

On August 3, 1883, the plaintiff filed her demurrer to the fourth defense set up in the said answer, as follows (omitting title):

"Comes now the plaintiff and demurs to the fourth defense set up in the defendant's answer, on the ground that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a defense to said petition, or any part thereof."

On August 6, 1883, the demurrer came on for argument before the court, and after hearing the argument of counsel for the respective parties, the court sustained the demurrer, the defendant excepting. Thereafter the plaintiff filed its reply, which contained a general denial of each and every allegation set forth in the answer. Trial at the March Term, 1884, of the district court, when the jury made certain special findings of fact, and rendered a verdict for plaintiff for $ 4,000. Thereupon the railroad company moved for judgment in its favor upon the statements in the pleadings, which motion was, on March 15, 1884, overruled. The defendant also filed its motion to set aside the general verdict rendered in the cause, and for judgment in its favor upon the special findings of fact rendered by the jury. This motion was also overruled, and thereupon the defendant moved the court to vacate the verdict and grant a new trial. This motion was sustained, the court deciding that the special finding of fact No. 1, submitted by the plaintiff, and special finding of fact No. 39, submitted by the defendant, were conflicting and not in harmony with each other; further, that the special finding of fact No. 39 was in conflict with the general verdict. The general verdict was thereupon set aside and a new trial granted. Upon the trial it was admitted by the parties to the action, among other things, that the plaintiff was appointed administratrix of the estate of Frederick Limekiller, deceased, by the probate court of Platte county, Missouri, on July 8, 1881, and duly qualified as such, and entered upon the duties of such office.

The sections of article 5, ch. 1 of the "Act relating to the administration of the estates of deceased persons," referred to in the fourth defense of defendant's answer, as published in the Revised Statutes of Missouri, are as follows:

"SEC. 94. Executors and administrators shall collect all money and debts of every kind due to the deceased, and give receipts and discharges therefor; and shall commence and prosecute all actions which may be maintained and are necessary in the course of his administration, and defend all such as are brought against him.

"SEC. 95. They shall prosecute and defend all actions commenced by or against the deceased, at the time of his death, and which might have been prosecuted or maintained by or against such executor or administrator.

"SEC. 96. For all wrongs done to the property, rights or interest of another, for which an action might be maintained against the wrong-doer, such action may be brought by the person injured, or, after his death, by his executor or administrator, against such wrong-doer; and, after his death, against his executor or administrator, in the same manner and with the like effect, in all respects, as actions founded upon contract.

"SEC. 97. The preceding section shall not extend to actions for slander, libel, assault and battery, or false imprisonment, nor to actions on the case, for injuries to the person of the plaintiff, or to the person of the testator or intestate of any executor or administrator." (Vol. 1 of Rev. Stat. of Missouri, [1879,] p. 16.)

Section 2121 of ch. 25, Rev. Stat. of Missouri (1879), reads:

"Whenever any person shall die from any injury resulting from or occasioned by the negligence, unskillfulness or criminal intent of any officer, agent, servant or employe, whilst running, conducting or managing any locomotive, car or train of cars, or of any master, pilot, engineer, agent or employe, whilst running, conducting or managing any steamboat or of any of the machinery thereof, or of any driver of any stage coach or other public conveyance, whilst in charge of the same as a driver; and when any passenger shall die from any injury resulting from or occasioned by any defect or insufficiency in any railroad or any part thereof, or in any locomotive or car, or in any steamboat or the machinery thereof, or in any stage coach or other public conveyance, the corporation, individual or individuals, in whose employ any such officer, agent, servant, employe, master, pilot, engineer or driver shall be at the time such injury is committed, or who owns any such railroad, locomotive, car, stage coach or other public conveyance at the time any injury is received, resulting from or occasioned by any defect or insufficiency above declared, shall forfeit and pay, for every person or passenger so dying, the sum of five thousand dollars, which may be sued for and recovered: First, by the husband or wife of the deceased; or, second, if there be no husband or wife, or he or she fails to sue within six months after such death, then by the minor child or children of the deceased; or, third, if such deceased be a minor and unmarried, then by the father or mother, who may join in the suit, and each shall have an equal interest in the judgment; or if either of them be dead, then by the survivor. In suits instituted under this section, it shall be competent for the defendant, for his defense, to show that the defect or insufficiency named in this section was not of a negligent defect or insufficiency."

Section 2122 reads:

"Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by a wrongful act neglect or default of another, and the act, neglect or default is such as would, if death had...