Stephens v. St. Louis Public Service Company

VAN OSDOL, Commissioner.

This is an action for $25,000 for personal injuries. A jury returned a verdict for defendant, and plaintiff has appealed from the judgment rendered.

Plaintiff, Catherine Stephens, alleged that she was a passenger on defendant’s streetcar eastbound on Delmar Avenue at a time when the streetcar was approaching Euclid Avenue in St. Louis. Plaintiff, in stating and making out her case, relied on the inference of negligence permitted by the rule of res ipsa loquitur.

The trial court submitted plaintiff’s case to the jury by giving plaintiff’s principal verdict-directing…