Polovich v. Sayers

• Decision Date: 13 March 1967
• Docket Number: No. 2,No. 51442,51442,2
• Citation: 412 S.W.2d 436
• Parties: Joseph POLOVICH, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Herbert W. SAYERS and Thirza M. Sayers and Herbert W. Sayers and Thirza M. Sayers, d/b/a Sayers Brook Orchard, Defendants-Appellants
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 436

412 S.W.2d 436

Joseph POLOVICH, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Herbert W. SAYERS and Thirza M. Sayers and Herbert W. Sayers and Thirza M. Sayers, d/b/a Sayers Brook Orchard Defendants-Appellants.

No. 51442.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

March 13, 1967.

Heege & Heege, Clayton, for appellants.

George R. Gerhard, Harold L. Satz, Theodore D. Ponfil, Satz & Ponfil, St. Louis, for respondent.

FINCH, Judge.

Plaintiff obtained a judgment for $60,000 for personal injuries and defendants appeal.

The appeal as presented to us involves only the question of whether plaintiff made a submissible case. In determining this issue, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff, including the benefit of favorable inferences reasonably to be drawn therefrom, as repeatedly announced in cases decided by this court. Brown v. Wooderson, Mo., 362 S.W.2d 525, 99 A.L.R.2d 894; See v. Wabash R. Co., 362 Mo. 489, 242 S.W.2d 15.

Defendant Herbert W. Sayers owned and operated a 1600-acre orchard near Potosi, Missouri. His wife, the defendant Thirza M. Sayers, acted as manager and at least when he was not personally present could give orders on behalf of her husband. On the day when plaintiff was hurt, Sayers was elsewhere on the orchard tract. With reference to events on the day in question, a portion of a deposition of Mr. Sayers, wherein he stated that his wife in her capacity as manager would have been the one on that occasion to have given directions, was introduced as an admission against interest.

Mr. Sayers contracted from time to time with Harry Strayer, an independent contractor, to do various construction and maintenance jobs on his orchard. On the date in question, Strayer was constructing a parking lot adjacent to a lake on the orchard property. The work was done on a cost plus basis and as a part of the agreement Strayer could use, as needed, any of the orchard equipment. Included was a 1949 Dodge truck which was used in connection with the orchard.

Plaintiff and one Kenny Gamble, both employees of Harry Strayer, were working on the new parking lot. On the day plaintiff was hurt, he picked up Gamble in the morning and took him to a quonset hut on the orchard property where the 1949 Dodge truck was stored. Plaintiff then went on over a hill and down to the lake where the parking lot was being constructed. Gamble followed with the Dodge truck. The terrain was hilly and in some places the roads in the orchard were on a grade of as much as 10 per cent. After Gamble passed the crest of the hill enroute from the quonset hut to the lake site, he applied the foot brake on the Dodge truck but the brake pedal went to the floor and the foot brake would not work. Gamble succeeded in stopping the truck with the emergency brake, and then, keeping the truck in low gear, eased the truck down the hill to the lake site.

Harry Strayer, the contractor, arrived at the lake shortly thereafter and Gamble talked to him and told him that the brakes on the Dodge truck were out. The evidence most favorable to plaintiff did not show that plaintiff heard this conversation or was made aware of the condition of the brakes on the truck.

At about 9:00 a.m., Harry Strayer talked to Mrs. Sayers at the quonset hut. As previously indicated, Mr. Sayers was elsewhere on the orchard tract and was not present at this conversation. An employee of the orchard, Clinton Ayers, was present and heard the conversation. Strayer reported to Mrs. Sayers that brake fluid was needed for the truck. Admissions against interest offered from Mr. Sayers' deposition disclosed that Mr. Ayers was his maintenance man. He made whatever repairs were needed on the truck at the orchard and it would have been his business to add brake fluid as needed in the truck. A statement of Mrs. Sayers from her deposition, offered in evidence as an admission, recited that they kept brake fluid on the farm for any piece of equipment. When Mrs. Sayers was asked whether she informed Mr. Ayers about the fact that brake fluid was low, she gave this testimony:

'QUESTION: When you were informed that the brake fluid was low on this did you get hold of Mr. Ayers and tell him to fix them, fix the fluid in this 1949 Dodge truck?

'ANSWER: He was there.

'QUESTION: He was there?

'ANSWER: He heard it when I did.

'QUESTION: He was there with you and Mr. Strayer?

'ANSWER: Yes.'

Mrs. Sayers did not ask or direct Strayer not to use the truck.

When plaintiff and Kenny Gamble finnished setting posts for the guardrail for the parking lot, Strayer told plaintiff to measure for lumber needed for a bumper guard. Meanwhile, Strayer and Gamble went to work on the boat dock. As plaintiff walked away to make the necessary measurements, Strayer and Gamble were walking in the other direction. Plaintiff heard brakes mentioned but did not hear any other details.

After plaintiff completed measurements for the bumper guard, he and Gamble got in the Dodge truck to go and get the material needed. This was at approximately 1:30 p.m. Plaintiff asked Kenny Gamble what he had heard mentioned about brakes, and Gamble told him that the brakes were all right except that he had to pump them a couple of times and that the emergency brake was fine. The evidence favorable to plaintiff does not disclose knowledge on the part of plaintiff of any information about the brakes other than that related to him at the time by Kenny Gamble.

Gamble drove the truck and as they crested the hill the truck was in low gear. As they started down from the crest Gamble applied the foot brake but it did not hold or slacken the speed of the truck at all. Plaintiff pulled the emergency brake but it had no effect. The truck speeded up and was freewheeling and as it crossed a cattle guard in the road it went out of control, side-swiped a culvert and ran into a tree. Plaintiff received very serious injuries.

The case was submitted against Mr. Sayers on the theory that he breached a duty to use due care in keeping the truck in repair and in failing to fix the brakes when he knew they were defective, and was submitted against Mrs. Sayers on the theory that as the managing agent for her husband she also owed plaintiff this duty of repair and was negligent in failing to repair the brakes which she knew were defective. Defendants' brief asserts on behalf of both defendants the failure of plaintiff to make a submissible case on the grounds which we shall discuss.

Defendants first contend that the trial court erred in failing to sustain their motion for a directed verdict at the close of plaintiff's case. That motion was waived by the action of the defendants in presenting evidence thereafter, and hence we have for review only the action of the court in overruling the motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence. Snead v. Sentlinger, Mo., 327 S.W.2d 202.

We hold that the evidence was sufficient to make a submissible case against the defendants. The Dodge truck belonged to Sayers and he had possession of it except when it was used temporarily by Strayer on such occasions as the one here involved in which Gamble picked up the truck that morning to do some hauling in connection with construction of the parking lot. Maintenance and repair of the truck was the owner's responsibility. As Gamble was driving the truck from where it was stored to the site of the parking lot, the foot brakes failed to work. This was related to Mrs. Sayers and the defendants' maintenance man at 9:00 a.m. Under the facts, notice to Mrs. Sayers constituted notice to Mr. Sayers. Although the truck was not used again until approximately 1:30 p.m., Clinton Ayers, the maintenance man, did not add brake fluid to the brakes on the truck. The brakes failed again when Gamble started down the slope on the other side of the hill and the collision with a tree resulted.

This is not a situation where a bailor leases to bailee a vehicle which is in satisfactory condition at the time of delivery and bailor has no responsibility to maintain and repair the vehicle while it is leased. Here, bailor was responsible for repair and maintenance at all times. The brakes failed as Gamble drove the truck from the place where it was stored. Defendants were notified promptly of this deficiency. The defendants' maintenance man was present and heard the report, but defendants did nothing in the four and one-half hours which elapsed before the truck was used again. Under those facts, the plaintiff made a submissible case.

The case of Hudson v. Moonier, 8th Cir., 102 F.2d 96, is in point. In that case the U.S. Court of Appeals, applying Missouri law, held that an employee of a road contractor could recover for personal injuries from a firm which leased trucks to the...