St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Buckner

• Decision Date: 18 January 1909
• Citation: 115 S.W. 923
• Parties: ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. BUCKNER.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 923

115 S.W. 923

ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. BUCKNER.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

January 18, 1909.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Chicat County; W. H. Wells, Judge.

Action by Mrs. Beatrice Buckner against the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded for new trial.

T. M. Mehaffy and E. B. Kinsworthy, for appellant. R. A. Buckner and Garland Street, for appellee.

WOOD, J.

Appellee was a passenger on appellant's train from Lake Village to Dermott. She had to change cars at Halley's Station. She arrived there at 1 o'clock p. m. and waited until 3.25 p. m. for the train to Dermott. She alleged that the negligence of appellant in failing to keep its waiting room at Halley's Station comfortably heated caused her great bodily pain and mental anguish; that upon her arrival at home she was prostrated with cold and fever, caused by the negligence of appellant as above alleged; and that since that time she has been an invalid. She sued appellant, laying her damages at the sum of $5,000. The appellant denied all the material allegations of the complaint.

The evidence on behalf of appellee tended to show: That she was a passenger of appellant from Lake Village to Dermott. That on arriving at Halley's Station she went into the depot. There was no fire there. She was suffering very much with the cold. It was a drizzling, windy, cold day. She had a chill while in the depot. The telegraph office adjoined the waiting room. There was a fire in it; but the agent would not permit passengers to avail themselves of it. The agent knew there was no fire in the waiting room. Appellee testified that after she got home she ached all over; that she had not recovered at the time of the trial from the effects of the cold and fever. She had fever and a cough the first month, and after that stomach trouble developed. After she had the cold and fever two months, gastritis set in, and her illness continued for months, necessitating her being carried to a sanitarium at Little Rock. Appellee goes into detail in explaining her long illness, the expenses thereof, and the suffering she endured by reason thereof. It is unnecessary to set out the testimony on this issue. It suffices to say the evidence is sufficient here to support the verdict.

During the examination of appellee the following questions were asked and answers given: "Q. You said that while you were suffering from the bronchitis, or whatever it was, your physical condition became so weakened, and you was worried. What occasioned that worry? A. It was fear of death. I was very fearful that I would die. I was badly frightened. Q. Did you have any particular reason for being frightened? A. Yes, sir; I haven't any desire to die. I have a desire to live. I knew I was in a dying condition. I had a sister to die in my house with consumption. I wouldn't have undergone the mental suffering for a million dollars. Q. Mrs. Buckner, you said yesterday that you suffered mentally from fear, and thought you were going to die. What produced that fear, aside from the disease you were suffering from? A. I had a sister die from consumption, I knew all the symptoms. I nursed her. When my fever continued for weeks, I was afraid I was going into consumption. My mental worry I wouldn't have endured for a million dollars." Appellant properly saved its exceptions to the introduction of this evidence.

"It is a fundamental rule of law," says this court, through Judge Riddick, in St. L., I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Bragg, 69 Ark. 402, 64 S. W. 226, 86 Am. St. Rep. 206, "that to recover damages on account of an unintentional negligence of another it must appear that the injury was the natural and probable consequence thereof and that it ought to have been foreseen in the light of attending circumstances." It should have been foreseen by appellant that its failure to keep its waiting room for passengers properly heated on a cold, damp day would naturally cause a delicate female passenger like appellee to have a cold, chill, fever, and even bronchitis, and to suffer the mental anguish that usually and naturally accompanies such ailments. But no one could contemplate, or would be expected to anticipate, that, if appellee became ill with cold, fever, bronchitis (or even gastritis) through the negligence of appellant in failing to heat its waiting room, she would, as a natural consequence of such illness, also be tortured with the "fear and dread of death." Much less could any one reasonably be expected to foresee, if appellee, through the negligence as alleged, became ill as alleged, that as the natural consequence of such illness she would be "afraid of going into consumption." It was not shown that...