Court Opinion

ID: 9772471
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:18:59.657708+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:44.750603
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing and to Transfer to Court En Banc
PER CURIAM.
Plaintiff asserts in his motion for rehearing and to transfer to the court en banc that the defense of assumption of risk has no place where primary or contributory negligence is present, citing August Viermann Bricklaying Co. v. St. Louis Contracting Co., 335 Mo. 534, 73 S.W.2d 734, decided by Division No. 2. On the ground that our present opinion conflicts with Vier-mann he urges that it be set aside or the conflict resolved by the court en banc.
It was formerly held that the defense of assumption of risk must rest upon contract and that this defense had no place where negligence, primary or contributory, was present. Under the later cases in both divisions of this court the basis of the doctrine is not contract but consent and the doctrine is not limited to master and servant cases or cases arising out of a contractual relationship. Two years after Viermann, Division No. 2 decided Paubel v. Hitz, 339 Mo. 274, 96 S.W.2d 369, an invitee (not master and servant) case in which a postman received a $22,500 verdict for injuries sustained in a fall while delivering mail on a runway leading from the sidewalk to the landowner’s place of business, due to the slippery condition of the runway. Pointing out that there was no hidden peril, but an obvious danger actually known and appreciated by plaintiff, and that “whatever risk existed incident to passage over the runway was voluntarily incurred by plaintiff — volenti non fit injuria — and defendant breached no legal obligation owed plaintiff,” the court reversed the judgment as a matter of law. We regard Paubel, not Viermann, as the latest controlling decision of Division No. 2 on this subject. We are not in conflict with Paubel. In Stein v. Battenfield Oil & Grease Co., 327 Mo. 804, 39 S.W.2d 345, deceased, an independent contractor, not a servant, was killed while working on defendant’s premises. Defendant pleaded that deceased assumed the risk, and plaintiff-widow contended this plea confessed that the relation was master-servant. Division 1 of this Court said: “Furthermore in its broader application the doctrine of assumption of risk, or incurred risk, is not limited to master and servant cases, but may be applied to other relations, * * In our recent Fletcher v. Kemp, Mo.Sup., 327 S.W.2d 178, which did not involve a master-servant relationship between plaintiff and defendant, we announced this same rule, that the doctrine of assumption of risk is not confined to master and servant cases, and held that assumption of risk in that negligence case was a jury question (the defense of contributory negligence was also submitted).
Plaintiff is mistaken in urging that the doctrine of assumption of risk falls out of every case where it is shown that defendant is negligent. In many negligence cases assumption of risk may defeat a claim originating in a charge of negligence. For instance a spectator at a ball park is held to assume the risks of a necessary and ordinary incident of the game, Grimes v. American League, Mo.App., 78 S.W.2d 520, 1. c. 523; Hudson v. Kansas City Baseball Club, 349 Mo. 1215, 164 S.W.2d 318, 142 A.L.R. 858; a spectator following a golf tournament assumes the risks ordinarily incident to watching such a match, Thompson v. Sunset Country Club, Mo.App., 227 S.W.2d 523; a skater at a skating rink assumes the risks of falling and colliding with other skaters, Reay v. Reorganization Inv. Co., Mo.App., 224 S.W.2d 580; Schamel v. St. Louis Arena Corp., Mo.App., 324 S.W.2d 375; Humbyrd v. Spurlock, Mo.App., 345 S.W.2d 499; a patron at a circus tent assumes all the risks inherent in structures of *250that character, King v. Ringling, 145 Mo.App. 285, 130 S.W. 482.
The doctrine of assumption of risk was held applicable to a patron of a restaurant who fell down a stairway leading to the basement, in Dietz v. Magill, Mo.App., 104 S.W.2d 707. The court said, 1. c. 711:
“In considering the propriety of the instruction in its relation to the facts in evidence, one may at first be inclined to be confused in that it not only submits the defense of assumption of risk in a case involving neither a master and servant nor any other contractual relationship, but purports to make such defense availing to defendant notwithstanding the fact that the risk assumed was one alleged to have arisen from the negligence of defendant.
“It must be borne in mind, however, that the doctrine of assumption of risk is not invariably limited to cases arising out of a contractual relationship between the parties, but in its broader aspects may extend as well to cases wherein the defense is founded upon the theory of volenti non fit injuria, which means that that to which a person assents is not regarded in law as an injury.” Arnold v. May Dept. Stores, 337 Mo. 727, 85 S.W.2d 748, a case of a customer in a beauty shop suing for negligently applying hair dye, in which it was indicated that if the maxim is applicable it could be invoked, was cited.
Missouri has followed the general trend of the decisions in this regard. Cf. Prosser on Torts, 2nd Ed., § 55, p. 309: “It was said in the early decisions that assumption of risk will not be found apart from a contract relation of the parties. It is now recognized, however, that the basis of the defense is not contract but consent, and that it is available in many cases where no contract exists. It is also said on occasions, particularly in employment cases, that the plaintiff never assumes the risk of the defendant’s negligence. Such a statement is a confusion in terms: if the plaintiff consents to the risk, there is no duty to him, and hence no negligence. The plaintiff does not assume the risk of any negligence which he has no reason to anticipate, but once he is fully informed of it, it is well settled that the risks arising from such negligence may be assumed.”
 Contributory negligence and assumption of risk are defenses to be pleaded affirmatively. § 509.090, V.A.M.S. They may be pleaded in the alternative. § 509.-110, V.A.M.S. They were so pleaded, in separate paragraphs of defendant’s answer, and were submitted to the jury by separate instructions. This case presented a fact situation in which the jury might find for defendant on the defense of assumption of risk on the theory that plaintiff, aware of the risk created by the negligence of the defendant, voluntarily encountered it, not negligently but reasonably and with caution because he appreciated the danger, and therefore is to be barred from recovery because the injury he sustained resulted from a “risk which he has accepted and brought upon himself.” Prosser, Torts, § 55, p. 304. In such case defendant is under no duty to plaintiff. Or, under the evidence in this case, the jury might find for defendant on the defense of contributory negligence, on the theory that “plaintiff’s conduct in encountering a known risk is itself unreasonable, and amounts to contributory negligence. There is negligence on both sides; and the plaintiff is barred from recovery, not only by his ‘implied consent’ to take the chance, but also by the policy of the law which refuses to allow him to impose upon the defendant a loss for which his own fault was at least in part responsible. The plaintiff’s conduct in accepting the risk may be unreasonable because the danger is out of all proportion to the interest he is seeking to advance, as where he consents to ride with a drunken automobile driver in an, unlighted car on a dark night, or dashes into a burning building to save his hat Or, *251•even after accepting a very reasonable risk, be may fail to exercise proper care for his ■own protection against that risk. In such cases, both assumption of risk and contributory negligence are available as defenses.” Prosser, Torts, § 55, p. 304. We have quoted and emphasized the language that fits this case.
There was no error in giving Instruction D-8 under the peculiar circumstances of this case, and no error in its form. We find no lack of evidence to sustain the giving of Instruction D-4, as claimed.
The motion for a rehearing and to transfer is overruled.