Wood v. Metropolitan St. Ry. Co.

• Citation: 181 Mo. 433,81 S.W. 152
• Parties: WOOD v. METROPOLITAN ST. RY. CO.
• Decision Date: 23 March 1904
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

81 S.W. 152

181 Mo. 433

WOOD v. METROPOLITAN ST. RY. CO.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

March 23, 1904.

CARRIERS — INJURIES TO PASSENGERS — EVIDENCE — SUFFICIENCY — EXPERT TESTIMONY — COMPETENCY — DAMAGES — EXCESSIVENESS.

1. In an action against a street railway company for injuries to a passenger caused by the falling of a station platform, owing to alleged negligence in permitting the timbers to become rotten, evidence considered, and held to justify submission to the jury of the issue of defendant's negligence.

2. In an action for personal injuries, expert and other evidence considered, and held not to show the cause of plaintiff's nervous prostration to be so conjectural as to render it error to submit to the jury the issue of whether or not it was caused by the injury.

3. In an action for personal injuries, it was proper to allow a medical expert to give his opinion as to whether the injuries caused the neurasthenia from which plaintiff suffered.

4. That plaintiff's expert witness is paid by plaintiff affects only his credibility, not his competency.

5. Where a platform, on which stood a number of people, gave way, causing plaintiff to fall some 16 feet, injuring her head and neck so as to make her unconscious, and ultimately causing neurasthenia, a verdict for $5,500 was not excessive.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Cass County; Wm. L. Jarrott, Judge.

Action by J. D. Wood, as administrator of Annie Wood, deceased, against the Metropolitan Street Railway Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Frank Hagerman, John H. Lucas, and R. T. Railey, for appellant. Wallace, Wallace & Culbertson, for respondent.

GANTT, P. J.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of defendant. The petition states: That the defendant, prior to and on the 6th day of October, 1897, was a common carrier of passengers for hire in Kansas City, Mo., and from Kansas City to Independence, and as such owned, operated, and controlled a system of cable street railways on various streets in Kansas City — one of its said lines extending along Fifteenth street, in said city — and that it also owned and operated an electric railway from Kansas City to Independence. That said electric railway was operated by defendant in connection with its cable system in Kansas City, and at the western terminus of said electric railway, near Askew avenue and Fifteenth street, passengers were transferred by defendant, by continued right of transportation sold by defendant, from said Fifteenth street line to said electric railway, and thence to Independence. That, as such common carrier, defendant owned, operated, and controlled a certain depot at the western terminus of said electric railway, together with the platform in and about said depot, which said platform and depot were used by the passengers of defendant on said electric railway on said Fifteenth street line in transferring from one of said lines to the other. That on the north and northeast sides of said depot there was at the time, and on the date already mentioned, a wooden structure or platform, upon which certain timbers of said structure of the rails of defendant's said electric railway rested, and its cars were caused to stand for convenience of its passengers in taking passage upon or alighting from its cars, which said structure was covered with wooden planks extending up to and against said depot, and making a continuous floorway from said depot to its said cars, and over which passengers passed in boarding or alighting from its said cars in transferring from one of its said lines to the other. That on said 6th day of October, 1897, the plaintiff, Mrs. Annie Wood, was a passenger on a ticket purchased by her from defendant on its Fifteenth street line, entitling her to continuous passage over said electric railway from Kansas City to Independence, and had been carried on said Fifteenth street line to said depot; and while transferring from said Fifteenth street line to said electric railway, and while in the exercise of due care and caution on her part, she came upon said platform at said depot, and was about to board one of defendant's electric cars then and there standing at said depot for the reception of passengers, when said platform gave way and fell, and she was precipitated with great force to the ground. That said platform was at this point 16 feet high, and she was thrown this distance suddenly and violently to the ground beneath. That by said fall she was severely and permanently injured, in this, to wit: Her left hip was bruised, wounded, and sprained; her left side wounded and bruised, and her left arm sprained and bruised, and permanently injured; the back of her head hurt and wounded, rendering her unconscious, and her nervous system greatly and permanently injured. She has suffered great pain and mental anguish, and will continue to suffer the same in the future. That said injuries were caused by the falling of said platform, and the falling and giving way of said platform was caused by the negligence of defendant in carelessly and negligently permitting the timbers and supports of said platform to become rotten, decayed, weakened, and in unsafe condition, and in permitting it to remain in such defective condition, which said rotten and unsafe condition was known to defendant, or by the exercise of ordinary care and diligence could have been known to it, in time to have repaired the same before such injury. Plaintiff states she was damaged by the said negligence of defendant in the sum of $25,000. The answer was a general denial. Plaintiff recovered a verdict and judgment for $5,500, and defendant appeals. After the appeal was filed in this court, plaintiff died, and the cause has been revived in the name of her administrator, John D. Wood.

The evidence established that Mrs. Wood, the plaintiff, was a passenger on defendant's Fifteenth street cable line, having a ticket from Kansas City to Independence, and, when she reached the depot of defendant's electric car line, left the cable car to take the electric car. The platform was crowded on account of the fall festivities that week, but the crowd was not greater than usual on such occasions. While attempting to reach her car, a section of the platform about 16 feet by 10 or 12 feet fell, and about 40 people were carried down with it. The platform was built over a ravine, on piles driven in the ground, and from 16 to 23 feet above the ground. Water and mud usually accumulated under the platform. The section of the platform that fell was not covered, and caught the rain that ran off of the shed. On the part of plaintiff the evidence tended to prove it was built in 1887, 10 years prior to the accident; on the part of defendant, that this broken girder was put in in 1893. The timbers and flooring were soft pine. There was testimony that the life of pine wood, exposed as this was, is from seven to nine years, and that it would rot sooner over a wet place like that under this platform. A number of witnesses who were at the scene of the wreck that night and early next morning testified that the sills under the section that fell were rotten or decayed; that the stringer at the east end of the hole was doty, and the joists that rested on it plowed their way through it, and the joists on which the flooring rested was also rotten. Mr. Crandall, who had been in the lumber business for 25 years, examined the joists and stringers next morning, and said that he took his thumb and finger and pulled off pieces of the rotten wood, and dug into the joists an inch or two with his knife. Mr. Kennedy's evidence was to the same effect. He was there immediately after the accident, while they were taking the people out of the hole. He said that the joist that laid on the sill, as it went down, broke through the sill and sloughed it off, and crushed down through it, digging into the sill three or four inches; that the sill was rotten and doty. Other witnesses (Gurney, Kreisher, Baldwin, Woodson, De Ceele, and A. M. Hail) testified to the rotten and decayed condition of the timbers. Clements, a builder, was on the platform when it fell. He examined the broken girder on the east end of the hole, and it was rotten. It was a dry rot from the center to within an inch and a half of the edge, and rotten on top. "You could punch a hole in it with an umbrella." That the proper way to have tested it was to go under the platform with a ladder, and test the timbers by sounding them with a hammer. That taking a crowbar and sounding from the top was not the proper way. Miss Beulah Vincent testified she was the daughter of the plaintiff, and was with her mother at the time the platform fell, and fell with her mother. Some of the crowd fell on her and her mother. Her mother was rendered unconscious by the fall. Some gentlemen helped her up. They got her and her mother up on the platform, and into the waiting room. She was assisted on an electric car by Mr. Gurney and Mr. Crump, and, when they reached Independence, Dr. Wood met them with a carriage and took them home. Plaintiff was in bed two weeks, and did not have the use of her limbs. Was not able to go about for a month. Has suffered pain continually in the back of her head and neck ever since the accident. Had what she called a "drawing sensation" in the back of her head and neck. Had grown worse all the time. Before the injury was in good health and did her housework, but since then had not been able to do anything. Had to take medicine to induce sleep, and then did not get restful sleep. Dr. Kuhn testified as an expert. He was a graduate of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, of class of 1884. He occupied the chair of nervous and mental diseases in two medical colleges in Kansas City. He testified that in 1899 he gave the plaintiff a thorough examination, and found her suffering from a clear,...