Razor v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 April 1881
• Citation: 73 Mo. 471
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Parties: RAZOR v. THE ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN & SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Appellant.

73 Mo. 471

RAZOR

v.THE ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN & SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

April Term, 1881.

Appeal from Madison Circuit Court.--HON. J. B. ROBINSON, Judge.

AFFIRMED.

Smith & Krauthoff with W. R. Donaldson for appellant.

L. H. Alford for respondent.

NORTON, J.

This is a suit commenced before a justice of the peace, on the following statement: “Plaintiff, for a cause of action, states that the defendant is a corporation duly organized and existing as such by virtue of the general and special laws of Missouri, and that as such corporation, it is the owner of that certain railroad known as the Iron Mountain Railroad, which passes through Castor township in said county; that as such railroad corporation it was the duty of defendant to erect and maintain lawful fences, gates, cattle-guards and road-crossings on the sides of its said railroad in said township of Castor, where the same passes through, along and adjoining inclosed and cultivated fields and uninclosed lands; that it failed so to erect and maintain said fences, gates, cattle-guards and road-crossings at a point on said railroad in said township of Castor, about between mile posts ______________, on or about the 18th day of July, 1876, by reason of which neglect and default, two of the plaintiff's hogs, of the value of $18, strayed at said point, (which was not a public road or road-crossing, nor a street of any town or incorporation,) on the defendant's said railroad, where the same passes through, along or adjoining inclosed or cultivated fields and uninclosed lands, and were negligently and carelessly run over and killed by the defendant and the locomotives, engines and cars, which were then and there negligently and carelessly being run by defendant and its servants and employes--wherefore plaintiff demands double damages for the killing as aforesaid of said (hogs) cattle, to-wit: The sum of $36, as is given by the statute in such cases made and provided,” etc. Plaintiff obtained judgment before the justice, and on a trial of the cause in the circuit court on defendant's appeal, plaintiff again obtained judgment, from which defendant has appealed to this court.

As the record contains no order showing that a bill of exceptions was filed, we can only look to the record proper for discovery of error, and the only error which defendant's counsel says it discloses, is that the statement, on which the action is based, is insufficient.

1. JUSTICE'S COURTS: pleadings; certainty requisite in.

Under the authority of the cases of Norton v. The Hannibal & St. Joseph R. R. Co., 48 Mo. 387, and Iba v. The Hannibal & St. Joseph R. R. Co., 45 Mo. 470, the above statement sufficiently sets forth the cause of action. In these cases it was held that the same completeness requisite to a petition in the circuit court has never been required in “a statement of the facts constituting the cause of action” before a justice of the peace. It is sufficient if such statement advise the opposite party of the nature of the claim, and be sufficiently specific to be a bar to another action. Justice's courts are popular tribunals, before which ordinary disputes can be adjusted without the aid of attorneys; and it would defeat the end of their organization if the rules of practice and pleading found necessary in courts of record were applied to their proceedings. The statute expressly provides that no formal pleading shall be required before justices of the peace.

2. RAILROADS: statutory duty to fence.

It is insisted that the above statement is insufficient because it alleges that defendant did not fence its road where it passed through or along uninclosed timbered lands, and to sustain this objection we have been...