Cathey v. Seattle Electric Co.

108 P. 443, 58 Wash. 176, 1910 Wash. LEXIS 913
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedApril 28, 1910
DocketNo. 8553
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 108 P. 443 (Cathey v. Seattle Electric Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cathey v. Seattle Electric Co., 108 P. 443, 58 Wash. 176, 1910 Wash. LEXIS 913 (Wash. 1910).

Opinion

Parker, J.

This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries, alleged to have resulted to the plaintiff from [177]*177the negligent operation of one of the street cars of the defendant. The defendant operates a double track electric street railway upon First avenue, in Seattle. First avenue runs approximately north and south. Battery street intersects First avenue at right angles. Bell street also intersects First avenue at right angles one block south of Battery street. The plaintiff was injured by a collision between a street car of the defendant and an ice wagon on which plaintiff was riding, at a point on First avenue about half way between Battery and Bell streets.

On May &, 1907, plaintiff and one Hans Rounstad were employed by the Standard Ice Company and were delivering ice. In the course of their duties they were proceeding north on the east side of First avenue. Rounstad was driving, being seated on the right, while plaintiff was seated on the left, both in the driver’s seat. As they passed Bell street the off horse became much frightened at a furniture van, and started to rear and jump and to crowd the other horse to the left towards the car tracks. At this time one of defendant’s cars was proceeding south on First avenue on the west car track, near Battery street. There was nothing to obstruct the view between the car and the wagon, which were then approximately a block apart and approaching each other. The horses continued to rear and crowd towards and upon the car tracks, the driver trying to pull them back upon the east side of the tracks so as to miss the approaching car, but upon the nearer approach of the car the driver, believing that it would be safer and more likely to avoid a collision with the car, pulled the horses to the left across the track on \vhich the car was approaching, hoping to miss the car by passing it on the west side of the street. The horses and the front part of the wagon passed over the track, but the car struck the right rear wheel of the wagon, throwing it over, the plaintiff falling with one of his legs under it, causing the injuries for which he claims damages.

[178]*178The negligence charged against the defendant is that its motorman in charge of the car “needlessly and recklessly permitted his car to run against said wagon which he could plainly see and which he could easily have avoided by the exercise of ordinary care and prudence.” The defendant denied all negligence on its part and that of its motorman, and alleged that the injuries sustained by plaintiff were caused by his own carelessness and negligence which contributed thereto, and were the approximate cause thereof. A trial before the court and a jury resulted in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The defendant moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and also for a new trial. These motions being denied, judgment was entered upon the verdict, and the defendant has appealed.

We will first notice appellant’s contentions upon its motions for judgment and for new trial, in so far as they challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. There was evidence tending to show that the horses, by reason of their fright, especially the fright of the off horse, became uncontrollable so far as the driver being able to keep them on the east side of and off the track of the approaching car; that their frightened condition and the driver’s efforts to control them and their tendency to go upon the track that the car was approaching upon could be plainly observed by a person situated as the motorman was upon the front platform of the car, from the time they were nearly a block away from the car until the collision actually occurred; that if the car had been stopped at a very short distance north of where the collision occurred, the rear end of the wagon would have passed over the track and cleared the car without collision; that the motorman could have stopped the car sooner than he did, after seeing the probability of the accident, and avoided the collision, especially if he had the car under proper control; that the driver of the horses was a strong man and an experienced driver, and that he did all that an experienced driver could do to avoid the collision, [179]*179and that respondent did nothing, and could do nothing, to avoid the collision. There being evidence tending to show these facts, we think the cause was properly submitted to the jury.

It is contended that the trial court erred in denying the appellant’s challenge to the panel of jurors. The challenge was based upon the ground that the jurors were not selected in accoi’dance with chapter 73, p. 131, Laws 1909 [Rem. & Bal. Code, § 103 et sag.], but were selected under chapter 146, p. 270, Laws of 1905, as amended by chapter 63, p. 102, Laws of 1907. By the Laws of 1905 and 1907 it was the duty of the superior court to appoint jury commissioners in each county in June of each year. It was the duty of these commissioners to select the names of all qualified jurors in their county and deposit their names, written on separate slips of paper, in a box to be delivered to, and remain in the custody of, the clerk of the court. On the second Saturday of each month it was the duty of the jury commissioners and the clerk to assemble in open court and draw such number of names from the box as the judge might direct for petit jurors to serve' during the ensuing calendar month.

This trial occurred on June 24, 1909. The jurors then in attendance upon the court had been regularly selected on the second Saturday in May, 1909, under the Laws of 1905 and 1907 as above briefly outlined. At the time of so selecting the jurors for service during the month of June, that law was in force. At the session of 1909, the legislature enacted a new law for the selection of jurors, being chapter 73, p. 131, Laws 1909 [Rem. & Bal. Code, § 94 et seq.]. This law went into force June 8, 1909, as all laws of that session did not having an emergency clause. By this law it is made the duty of the superior courts to divide their respective counties into not less than three nor more than six jury districts, each with equal population as near as may be. It is made the duty of the clerk of the court, during the month of July in each year, to make up a jury list containing [180]*180the names of all qualified jurors in each district, to provide boxes for each district, write the names of the jurors upon slips of paper, and deposit the names in the boxes of the proper districts. Prom these boxes the jury is to be drawn from month to month in a similar manner as under the previous law, except the drawing, is done by the clerk of the court without the aid of jury commissioners, and the names are to be drawn in equal numbers from each jury box. The jurors so drawn are to serve for the ensuing month. We have then this situation. The jurors attending upon the court at the time of this trial were regularly selected for service for June, 1909, under a law that was in force on the second Saturday of May, the time of their selection, but was not in force at the time of the trial, because the new law of 1909 had the effect of repealing the prior laws when it went into force on June 8, 1909. State ex rel. Gibson v. Gilliam, 56 Wash. 29, 104 Pac. 1131. There could be no jury list made up by the clerk of the court under the law of 1909 from which a jury could be drawn to serve during June, 1909, since

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
108 P. 443, 58 Wash. 176, 1910 Wash. LEXIS 913, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cathey-v-seattle-electric-co-wash-1910.