Bellamy v. Kansas City Railways Co.

Citations

• 108 Kan. 708
• 196 P. 1104
• 1921 Kan. LEXIS 249

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Street Railway — Negligence—Propelling Street Car Backwards — No Watchman at Bear End of Car — Injury to Child. Negligence of a street-railway company may be established by evidence that its employees propelled its street car backwards on a public street where children were accustomed to be, when the motorman was operating the car from its other end, and the conductor had alighted from the car, and when there was no one on the lookout at the end of the car in the direction in which it was moving.</p> <p>2. Same — Negligence—Personal Injury — Contributory Negligence by Infants. Infants of tender years are not presumed to have discretion, and are not, as a matter of law, held amenable to the disabling effects of contributory negligence. The question whether a seven-year-old child has sufficient capacity and discretion to render it guilty of contributory negligence is for the consideration of a jury.</p> <p>3. Pleadings — Amendment to Petition — Judicial Discretion. The propriety of permitting a plaintiff to amend his petition in an action for negligence is within the sound discretion of the trial court.</p> <p>4. Street Railways — Negligence—Moving Car Backward — No Watchman at Bear of Car — Personal Injury to Infant Child. Where it is shown that children were permitted and accustomed to climb upon the outside of a street car and cling to and ride upon the coupling bar and elsewhere on the outside of the car while the car was making a backward movement on a Y switch, and while the motorman was operating the car from the other end of it and the conductor had alighted from the car, and when there was no one in front to watch that the children should not be injured, there is evidence of negligence for which the street-car company may be liable if one of the children, too young to be guilty of contributory negligence, is injured thereby.</p> <p>5. Same — Instructions—Contributory Negligence of Infant. The instructions touching the negli