Dodge v. Salinger

217 P. 1014, 126 Wash. 237, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 1140
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 30, 1923
DocketNo. 17999
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 217 P. 1014 (Dodge v. Salinger) 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
Dodge v. Salinger, 217 P. 1014, 126 Wash. 237, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 1140 (Wash. 1923).

Opinion

Holcomb, J.

— On this appeal, we are to review five separate actions for damages arising out of a collision occurring between two automobiles, at 5:30 p. m. on October 17,1921, at tbe intersection of Federal avenue and East Republican street, Seattle. These streets were paved and dry at the time of the collision. Federal avenue runs north and south; East Republican street east and west.

Respondent Dodge was driving a Paige Sports automobile, weighing 3,350 pounds, containing three adults and one infant; himself, his wife and infant, and his wife’s mother, Mrs. Paxton. He was driving west approaching Federal avenue. He had no curtains on his car. The other car was a Studebaker, weighing 2,885 pounds, the occupants of which were Loring Salinger, a nineteen-year-old boy, son of Leland Salinger, the owner of the car, and five other boys near the age of Loring Salinger, among them one Ochi, a Japanese boy eighteen years of age, a guest, riding in the rear seat. The Salinger car was approaching East Republican street from the north.

As usual, the controversy is waged over the difficult questions of which car was being driven at an unlawful rate of speed; which car was at or in the intersection first, and which car had the right of way, and the alleged contributory negligence of each driver.

The traffic ordinances of Seattle thought to apply to the situation were alleged and admitted.

[239]*239The occupants of the Paige car, traveling west on East Republican street, testified positively that their car was being driven at the rate of fifteen miles per hour down a 11.3 per cent grade, under compression, between the street intersections at Federal avenue and the street to the east; that they were in the street intersection and two-thirds of the way across before they saw the other car coming from the north in a straight line towards them at, as Mrs. Paxton said, “a terrific rate.” She said she first saw the Studebaker car when it was two car lengths away, and shouted to her son-in-law at almost the instant of the collision. Dodge testified that he was at least two-thirds of the way across the street intersection when they were struck; that he was on the right-hand side of the street and driving across the street intersection at about twelve miles per hour.

■ On the other hand, the occupants of the Studebaker car testified equally1 positively that their car was traveling at the rate of eighteen to twenty miles per hour; that some of them saw the Paige car coming from the east down hill towards Federal avenue at the rate of from twenty to thirty miles per hour, come into the street intersection at undiminished speed, and struck them head on about the center of the street intersection north and south, or a little to the south of it.

A disinterested witness, one Randall, testified that he crossed Federal avenue just before the collision, going east' on East Republican street, and saw the Paige car coming when it was about thirty feet from the east line of the street intersection; that it was traveling about six or seven feet from the curb on the right-hand side of the street and at about eighteen miles per hour. He saw the Studebaker just before [240]*240they came together. Just before the collision occurred, he heard an outcry of some kind, which he thought was from one of the women in the Paige car. "When he first saw the Studebaker car, it was trying to pass the Paige car in the intersection. The Paige car had then slowed down considerably. At the time of the collision, the course of the Paige car was straight west on.the right side of the street across the intersection, and the course of the Studebaker car was straight south on the right side of the street across the intersection, and that the collision occurred near the northwest corner of the intersection; thus showing that each driver was driving on the proper side of the street and that the common point where their lines of travel would intersect was where it did intersect at the moment of the collision, near the northwest corner of the street intersection. Thus, regardless of the condition and position in which the cars were immediately after the collision, and the amount of damage done to each car, it is quite evident, as the trial court believed, that the Paige car must have been in the intersection first, and was struck by the Studebaker ear.

Photographs of the two cars in evidence show that the Studebaker car was very badly wrecked. It was in some manner thrown up with two wheels on the parking strip at the southwest corner of the intersection, against a telephone pole and a tree. The other two wheels were on the pavement outside of the curb. The two wheels on the right side of the car, on the parking strip were broken down, the other two wheels were not broken down, but the tires were stripped from them and that side of the car was badly mashed. The rear end of the car plainly shows that a violent blow occurred against the left rear fender, mashing [241]*241it and mashing the running board down. The Paige car was whirled around to the left and somewhat across the street, and stopped headed to the southwest, almost even across the street from the Studebaker car. The damage to the Paige car consisted of the radiator and front end of the car being bent and pushed to the left so that the radiator was even with the steering wheel, and the fender on the left side was mashed and. bent and pushed upward.

Although the nature of the injuries to the cars alone cannot determine who was at fault, so many things depending on the weight and momentum of the different cars, the speed at which they were traveling, and the ground on which they were traveling and moved after the collision occurred, yet the nature of the injuries to these ears show that the Paige (respondent’s car) ran into the other.

As to the speed of the cars, the trial judge had the witnesses before him and was able to judge of their demeanor, and we are unable to say that the evidence preponderates against the finding of the trial court that the Salinger boy was traveling at a high rate of speed, approached and entered the intersection at a high rate of speed, and was thus negligent. The trial court, however, found and concluded that Dodge, the driver of the Paige car, was not negligent, because the testimony in his behalf was that he approached the intersection at not to exceed fifteen miles per hour, and slowed up to twelve miles per hour at the east side of the intersection, and that he looked to the right, or north, up Federal avenue at a point approximately forty feet from the east side of the intersection where he could see up Federal avenue a distance of 140 or 150 feet, and saw no car approaching the intersection from that direction; that he then turned his attention [242]*242to the left, or east side of Federal avenue, which he was then approaching, for any car coining from that direction; that he was two-thirds of the way across the intersection before his car was struck.

But the trial court undoubtedly lost sight of the fact that Dodge testified that, after he looked at the place approximately forty feet from the east side of the intersection, he did not look again to the right. He was a very fair and frank witness, and we are impressed with his honesty, but the fact that he testified repeatedly and unequivocally that he did not look to the right after looking at the place about forty feet east of the intersection, is against him.

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Bluebook (online)
217 P. 1014, 126 Wash. 237, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 1140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dodge-v-salinger-wash-1923.