S. J. Crane v. the Kansas City Baseball & Exhibition Co.

• Citation: 153 S.W. 1076,168 Mo.App. 301
• Parties: S. J. CRANE, Appellant v. THE KANSAS CITY BASEBALL AND EXHIBITION COMPANY and GEORGE TEBEAU, Respondents
• Decision Date: 17 February 1913
• Court: Court of Appeals of Kansas

153 S.W. 1076

168 Mo.App. 301

S. J. CRANE, Appellant v. THE KANSAS CITY BASEBALL AND EXHIBITION COMPANY and GEORGE TEBEAU, Respondents

Court of Appeals of Missouri, Kansas City

February 17, 1913

Appeal from Jackson Circuit Court.--Hon. W. O. Thomas, Judge.

AFFIRMED.

Judgment affirmed.

L. A Laughlin for appellant.

Hadley Cooper, Neel & Wilson for respondents.

OPINION

JOHNSON, J.

This is an action for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by negligence of defendants. The answer in addition to a general denial pleads contributory negligence and assumed risk. The cause was submitted to the trial court on an agreed statement of facts in which it is stipulated that if the facts disclose a good cause of action, plaintiff shall have judgment for one hundred dollars and costs. The defendants separately requested the court to declare as a matter of law that plaintiff is not entitled to recover. These requests were granted and judgment was rendered for defendants. Plaintiff appealed.

The ruling of the court in giving these declarations of law to which exceptions were duly made and preserved by plaintiff, requires us to look at the facts from the viewpoint most favorable to plaintiff; and if we should find they will support a reasonable inference that his injury was caused by the negligence pleaded in the petition, unaided by negligence of plaintiff, the conclusion would follow that the court erred in holding as a matter of law that plaintiff had no cause of action.

The facts of the case are as follows: The defendants are the owners of a baseball park in Kansas City and are engaged in the business of giving public exhibitions of professional baseball. The defendant corporation is a member of a league or association of baseball clubs known as the "American Association." This association is composed of eight professional clubs and games are played according to schedule in the various cities to which the respective clubs are accredited. The home of the club owned and conducted by defendants is in Kansas City and the games assigned to Kansas City are played in defendants' park under their management and control. The association and its constituent clubs are purely business enterprises conducted for profit. When a game is played in Kansas City spectators are compelled to pay admission fees; the fee to the grand stand being fifty cents and to the "bleachers" twenty-five cents. The grand stand seats have the advantage over those in the "bleachers" of being closer to the scene of action and of having a roof over them. The seating structures are on the west end and north side of the park. The home plate is at the west end of the diamond and the center of the grand stand is back of the catcher. The north side of the grand stand extends eastward some distance beyond a point opposite third base and is followed by the "bleachers" which extend on to the east end of the park. The "foul lines" run respectively from the home plate to and beyond first and third bases. The object of the batter is to "make a hit," and to do so he must strike a pitched ball and send it to some point inside the "foul lines." The object of the pitcher is to prevent the batter from making a safe hit and such object is aided by a foul hit which cannot help and may count against the batter. Foul hits, therefore, are common incidents of every game, and balls thus hit go into the foul territory in every direction and, of course, may go into the grand stand and bleachers. To guard nearby spectators against injury from such balls the grand stand seats are protected by intervening wire netting of very loose mesh. This netting on the north side extended east to a point opposite third base, thence on...