Thompson v. United Rys. Co.

• Decision Date: 06 February 1923
• Docket Number: No. 17295.,17295.
• Citation: 249 S.W. 105
• Parties: THOMPSON v. UNITED RYS. CO. OF ST. LOUIS.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

249 S.W. 105

THOMPSON v. UNITED RYS. CO. OF ST. LOUIS.

No. 17295.

St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri.

February 6, 1923.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Franklin Ferriss, Judge.

"Not to be officially published."

Action by Fannie M. Thompson against the United Railways Company of St. Louis. From judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Charles W. Bates, T. B. Francis, and G. T. Priest, all of St. Louis, for appellant.

C. J. Anderson, of St. Louis, for respondent.

NIPPER, C.

This is an action for damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff on the 22d day of January, 1919, while she was a passenger on one of defendant's street railway cars. It is alleged that, while she was riding in a street car in a northerly direction on Grand avenue, said defendant so carelessly and negligently conducted itself as to cause or permit the street car in which she was a passenger to collide with and strike a heavy wagon with such force and violence as to cause plaintiff to be suddenly thrown forward against the back of a seat in front of her and to rebound back ward against the seat on which she was sitting, and then thrown face downward upon the floor with great force and violence, and that, while plaintiff was lying on said floor, some person unknown to plaintiff stepped upon and trampled upon her back, causing the following injuries:

"Her back was bruised, contused, strained, and wrenched; that the front portions of her chest and stomach were bruised, contused, and lacerated; that her knees and the front portion of her limbs were bruised and contused; that plaintiff sustained internal injuries in this: That her stomach and intestines were bruised and lacerated, causing an ulcer to be formed thereon; that plaintiff's liver was bruised and contused, causing a serious inflammation of that organ to develop; that each of plaintiff's kidneys were bruised and contused; and that an abscess was thereby caused to be formed in plaintiff's right kidney.

"That plaintiff sustained a serious shock to her entire nervous system, thereby causing plaintiff to become and remain in a nervous, irritable, and hysterical condition.

"Plaintiff further states that by reason of said injuries she has suffered great pain and anguish, of body and mind, and will continue to so suffer in the future."

The answer was a general denial.

Plaintiff recovered judgment for $4,000, and defendant appeals. Defendant complains of the admission of certain testimony.

Plaintiff was permitted to testify, over the objections and exceptions of defendant's counsel, that, as a result of the injuries she sustained, she was suffering from a skin disease resembling "ringworms,' and known as psoriasis. A doctor testifying on behalf of plaintiff said that she was suffering from psoriasis, consisting of small red spots containing pus, formed on the surface of the skin, and was permitted to testify, over the objections and exceptions of defendant's counsel, that in his opinion the cause of this condition of the skin was the result of the shock and malnutrition brought about in the body by the accident, affecting both the digestion of the stomach and the eliminative processes through the kidneys.

The alleged errors upon which this appeal is based are that: (1) The court erred in permitting plaintiff to testify, over defendant's objections, that she was suffering from the disease known as psoriasis, because such disease was not pleaded in the...