LAW.coLAW.co

Moore v. The Missouri Pacific Railway Company, Appellant

Supreme Court of Missouri1881-04
73 Mo. 438

Summary

Holding. The judgment for the plaintiff was affirmed because the circumstantial evidence was sufficient to support a finding that the mare was killed by the defendant's train, and the jury instructions properly conveyed the essential elements of the claim without need for the additional explicit language defendant requested.

A railway company appealed a judgment awarding damages for a mare killed by one of its trains under a railroad statute requiring fencing. The plaintiff presented circumstantial evidence: the mare and other horses were spotted on the defendant's track the night of May 16th, and the animal was discovered dead the following morning in a stone culvert on the railway's right of way with cuts on its hind legs and horse tracks leading down to the culvert. Although the appellate court acknowledged the evidence was not conclusive and might have reached a different verdict if sitting as jurors, it found the evidence sufficient to support the jury's finding and refused to overturn the verdict based on the weight of evidence alone.

The defendant also challenged the trial court's jury instructions, arguing they should have explicitly required the jury to find that the mare entered the track and was injured as a result of the company's failure to maintain required fencing. The court rejected this argument, holding that while pleadings must state ultimate facts rather than evidence, instructions may be phrased differently and need only present the operative facts logically. The instructions adequately conveyed that the mare got on the unprotected track and was killed by a train, and the failure to fence as a cause of entry was necessarily implied by these facts absent contrary evidence.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Sufficiency of circumstantial evidence to establish that a railway killed an animal
  • Proper framing of jury instructions in railroad liability cases involving unfenced property
  • Distinction between pleading requirements and instructional standards

Procedural posture

The defendant appealed a judgment in favor of the plaintiff in an action under railroad law for damages to livestock, challenging both the evidentiary sufficiency and the instructions given to the jury.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Henry, J.

This is an action under the 43rd section of the railroad act to recover damages for amare killed by a train of defendant’s cars. Plaintiff had judgment, from which defendant appealed, and the only questions which wTe are asked to pass upon are: First, Was there any evidence tending to prove that the mare was killed on defendant’s road by a train of passing cars? Second, Was there error in the instructions given for plaintiff’?

There was no direct evidence that the animal was killed by being run over or against by a train of defend ant’s cars, but there was evidence to the effect that she and other horses were seen on the defendant’s track on the night of May 16th, and that she was found dead the next morning in a deep stone culvert on defendant’s right of way with some scratches or cuts on her hind legs, and “that there were horse tracks just above the mouth of the culvert coming slanting from the road two or three feet.” While it must be admitted that the evidence is not calculated to produce absolute conviction that the mare was killed by a train of cars, and although, if passing upon it as jurors, we should have been inclined to find a different verdict from that returned by the jury, we cannot say that the evidence did not tend to establish the facts found, or was wholly insufficient to support the verdict. It is not our province to reverse a judgment because the weight of evidence in our opinion is against the verdict.

The instructions complained of told the jury in effect that if the mare got upon the track at a place where the company was bound to fence and had failed do so, and was killed while on the track by a train of defendant’s cars, they should find for plaiutiff; and it is contended that it was erroneous in not requiring the jury also to find that the animal got upon the track and was injured by the failure to construct or maintain such fence. Luckie v. C. & A. R. R. Co., 67 Mo. 245; Cunningham v. H. & St. Jo. R. R. Co., 70 Mo. 202, are cited in support of that view. In each of these cases the question was as to the sufficiency of the statement of the cause of action, in neither of which was it alleged that the stock got upon the track and was injured in consequence of the failure to construct and maintain a fence as required by the statute. The same accuracy and exactness required in pleading are not required in instructions. The facts upon which plaintiffs right to recover is predicated in the instructions are, that the mare got on the track at a place where it was not fenced as required, and while on tbe track was killed by a train of defendant’s cars passing over tbe track. These facts substantially embrace the fact that she got upon the track and was injured by reason of the failure of the company to fence the road. In his petition plaintiff is not allowed to state the evidence of the facts which constitute his cause of action, but tbe conclusions from the evidence — the facts which the evidence establishes. Not so in an instruction. If the jury found the facts stated in the instructions, the other fact which defendant insists they should have been required to find was necessarily implied from those facts in the absence of any evidence whatever that she did not. get upon the track by reason of the failure to fence. Instructions are to be considered with reference to all the evidence in the case. Nothing would have been gained by defendant if what he asked had been inserted in the instructions; for no court or jury would hesitate for a moment, if the facts required to be found by the instructions were found, then to infer the other facts from them, if, as here, there was no evidence to the contrary. The inference is so natural and irresistible that no injury could have resulted to defendant from the omission he complains of. The judgment is affirmed.

All concur.