Phillips v. St. Louis & S. F. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 01 April 1908
• Citation: 211 Mo. 419,111 S.W. 109
• Parties: PHILLIPS v. ST. LOUIS & S. F. R. CO.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

111 S.W. 109

211 Mo. 419

PHILLIPS v. ST. LOUIS & S. F. R. CO.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

April 1, 1908.

Rehearing Denied April 13, 1908.

1. CHARITIES — HOSPITALS — NEGLIGENCE — LIABILITIES — DAMAGES — EXEMPTIONS — "CHARITABLE INSTITUTION."

The Employés' Hospital Association of the Frisco Line, a corporation under the direct control of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company, which undertakes to furnish medical treatment to employés of said railroad in consideration of monthly payments made by them, is not a "charitable institution," within the rule which exempts such institutions from liability for negligence.

2. SAME—CARE REQUIRED.

Where a hospital association operated under the direction of a railroad company undertakes to furnish treatment to employés, not as a charity, but in consideration of monthly payments by such employés, it is liable for failure to competently treat the patients received.

3. SAME — LIABILITY OF RAILROAD — EMPLOYÉS' HOSPITAL.

By rule 3 of the Employés' Hospital Association of the Frisco Line, the heads of the departments and the foremen of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company are furnished with blank certificates, which they issue to employés entitled to receive benefits. By rule 5, the railroad company's chief surgeon and general claim agent must be notified. By rule 6, if the employé injured can be moved to the hospital, the chief surgeon and general claim agent must be notified. Rule 13 makes the chief surgeon and the other surgeons of the hospital association the chief surgeon and the local and division surgeons of the railroad company. The railroad company retains stipulated amounts from monthly earnings of employés, which it pays to the association. Held, that such hospital association, together with all its surgeons and physicians, are agents of the railroad company, which is liable for their negligence.

4. EVIDENCE—ADMISSIONS.

In an action against a railroad company for negligence resulting in the death of an employé, it appeared that deceased had been treated in a hospital maintained by defendant for the use of its employés; that the chief surgeon of the hospital association, who was also chief surgeon of defendant, wrote to the head of the department in which deceased was employed notifying him that deceased was mentally unbalanced and should be sent to an asylum, such letter being in the line of the chief surgeon's duties. Deceased had been permitted to leave the hospital unattended, and this letter was written two days after his death, but at a time when neither plaintiff, defendant, nor the writer knew of such fact. Held, that such letter is in the nature of an admission by an agent of defendant and is admissible as such, and that the doctrine of res gestæ has no application.

5. NEGLIGENCE—PROXIMATE CAUSE—RESULTS TO BE ANTICIPATED.

Where the surgeon of a railroad company's hospital system having charge of an insane patient placed him aboard a train unattended and without notice to his family, knowing that he would have to find his home in a populous city filled with street railway lines, his death by being run over by a street car might have been reasonably anticipated.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Moses N. Sale, Judge.

Action by Ida Phillips against the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Joseph A. Wright, for appellant. W. F. Evans and J. G. Egan, for respondent.

GRAVES, J.

This is an action by the widow to recover the sum of $5,000 for the alleged negligent killing of her husband, James B. Phillips, who died April 11, 1904. The trial court having given a peremptory instruction to find for the defendant, the plaintiff took an involuntary nonsuit, with leave, and, after unsuccessful motion to set aside the nonsuit so taken, perfected her appeal to this court.

Phillips, the deceased, was an employé of defendant in its auditor's department. As such employé, he had been taking out of his wages a small monthly hospital fee, which entitled him to be admitted and treated in a certain hospital system alleged, upon the one hand, to be maintained by the defendant for that purpose, and, upon the other hand, to be a separate and distinct corporation from the defendant, and maintained by certain employés of defendant, and not by the defendant itself. Shortly prior to his death, Phillips had been furnished a pass by the defendant over its line from St. Louis to Springfield and return, and, using such employé's pass, he went from St. Louis to Springfield to take treatment for his ailments in the hospital there, which was a part of the hospital system above mentioned. For a time he was treated, and on a certain morning took passage upon one of defendant's trains at Springfield bound for St. Louis, his home. This train arrived about 7 o'clock that evening, and deceased left the train unharmed. About 9 o'clock of the same evening, a man, partially undressed and in condition to retire for the night, was lying across one of the many street car lines of the city and was run over and killed by a passing car. Some two weeks later, the body was exhumed and identified as that of James B. Phillips. Plaintiff had no knowledge of the peculiar and untimely death until about the latter date. The claim is that Phillips was mentally unbalanced, which fact was known to defendant, and defendant was remiss in duty in not notifying his family of his departure from the Springfield hospital on his arrival in St. Louis, and, further, in turning loose upon the streets of said city, unattended, a man in that known mental and helpless condition. There are several peculiarly interesting questions, which, together with the incident facts, will be duly noted.

1. Plaintiff having been cast upon her proof, rather than upon the pleadings, the legal questions involved must be entwined with all pertinent facts shown. In such case the facts proven by her are established facts for the purposes of this review. At the threshold of the inquiry is the relationship between defendant and the Employés' Hospital Association of the Frisco Line, a corporation, separately incorporated by the leading officials of defendant. The hospital at which plaintiff's husband was treated was part and parcel of the hospital system managed by the association above named. Defendant contends that it is in no sense responsible for the negligent acts, if such there were, of the Employés' Hospital Association of the Frisco Line; that it is a distinct corporate entity, not under control of defendant; and that it is responsible for its own acts of negligence. This relationship between the defendant and the hospital association is important on the question of excluding certain evidence, in addition to the point now in review. The charter of this association was in evidence. By article 1 thereof the corporation is named. Articles 2, 3, and 4 read thus:

"Art. 2. The purposes for which this association is formed are the support of a benevolent and charitable undertaking in this: To provide medical and surgical treatment and care for the employés of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, and of its associated companies, who may be injured or disabled by accident or sickness while in such employ, and in the line of duty, to such extent only and under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed from time to time by the trustee hereinafter provided for; and to furnish such employés with additional privileges and benefits, not inconsistent or interfering with the main object of the association as may from time to time be directed for the said trustees; and to that end purchase, acquire, erect and maintain, suitable buildings, with necessary land and appurtenances for hospital and other purposes within the purview of these articles; and to sell, convey, incumber and transfer any such property whenever said trustee shall direct.

"Art. 3. All the powers of the association and of any corporation into which it may be merged, shall be vested in and exercised by five trustees, who shall manage and conduct the business and control all its property; the names and residences of those who shall be trustees until their successors shall be chosen as hereinafter provided, are as follows: B. F. Yoakum, of St. Louis, state of Missouri. L. F. Parker, of St. Louis, state of Missouri. A. J. Davidson, of St. Louis, state of Missouri. C. C. Mills, of Monett, state of Missouri. Chas. Huffschmitt, of St. Louis, state of Missouri. Their successors shall be chosen at such time and in such manner as may be provided by the by-laws, which the trustees shall adopt for the government of the affairs of the association, and which they shall make for the government of the affairs of the association and which they may amend as shall seem best to them.

"Art. 4. The association shall not engage in business for pecuniary profit in any form, and shall not have any capital stock; the funds necessary for carrying out its purpose shall be raised in such manner as may be provided by the by-laws."

Article 5 provides the place of business for the corporation, and article 6 provides the term of 50 years as the life of the corporation. By the rules adopted and promulgated by B. F. Yoakum, president of the board of trustees, it is provided, among other things, as follows: "Rules and Regulations. It being contemplated that, for the consideration of the contribution paid monthly by the members of the Employés' Hospital Association of the Frisco Line, a home and medical attention for the sick and injured of said association will be provided, in accordance with the following rules and regulations, it is directed: (1) Medical relief will only be furnished at the hospital of the association, except as hereinafter designated. (2) Only those who have become sick or injured while in the employ of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad System, and in the...