Dyke v. Johnson

82 Wash. 377
Washington Supreme Court·Decided December 1, 1914·No. No. 11923·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

Main, J.

The purpose of this action was to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by Mrs. Van Dyke, one of the plaintiffs, when two automobiles collided.

The plaintiffs are husband and wife. The defendants, D. A. Johnson and Rose Johnson, his wife, are the parents of Harold P. Johnson, the other defendant. The cause was tried to a jury. Prom a verdict and judgment in favor of the defendants, the plaintiffs have appealed.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Tenth avenue north, and east Aloha street, in the city of Seattle. Tenth avenue north, is a north and south street. East Aloha street extends east and west. Both streets are paved with asphalt. The grade on Tenth avenue north, at the intersection of east Aloha street, and for several blocks on the other side thereof, is slight. East Aloha street, for approximately three blocks west of Tenth avenue north, also has an inconsiderable grade. Beginning at the east line of Tenth avenue north, the grade of east Aloha street increases and continues to increase for a number of blocks. The surface of the ground immediately west of Tenth avenue north, and north of east Aloha street, has an elevation of approximately seven feet above the street, and was, at the time of the accident, covered with grass about fifteen inches high. This elevation of earth obstructs the view of travel going south on Tenth avenue north, approaching east Aloha street until a. point is reached where the earth drops down to the intersecting sidewalks. Tenth avenue north, is forty-two feet and two inches between the curbs. East Aloha street is twenty-four feet and two inches between the curbs.

[379] On July £1, 191£, one Mrs. Childs was driving her five passenger Ford car south along the west side of Tenth avenue north. With Mrs. Childs, as her invited guests, were the plaintiffs, a Miss Ostrum, and a Mrs. Lloyd. Mrs. Childs sat in front on the left side and drove the automobile. Mr. Van Dyke sat in the front seat on the right-hand side, and held on his lap Mrs. Childs’ little girl, then aged about nine years. The three ladies above mentioned occupied the rear seat. The automobile was traveling at the rate of ten miles per hour. When it was approximately nine feet north of the north edge of the sidewalk, on the north side of east Aloha street, Mrs. Childs and Mr. Van Dyke saw the defendants’ automobile approaching from the west, traveling rapidly east on Aloha street. The plaintiffs’ evidence tends to show that the Johnson machine at this time was approximately one hundred and twenty feet west of the line of Tenth avenue north, and was on the right-hand side of the center of east Aloha street.

According to the defendants’ evidence, the Johnson automobile was somewhat nearer Tenth avenue north than one hundred and twenty feet at this time. Both cars continued in the direction they were going. A little to the southeast of the center point of the intersection of the streets named, the cars collided. The point of contact between the cars was the right front of the car Mrs. Childs was driving with the left center of the Johnson car. Mrs. Childs apparently upon seeing that a collision was imminent turned her car to the left. The Johnson car maintained its direction.

When Mr. Van Dyke realized that a collision was at hand, thinking of the welfare of the little girl upon his lap, he took her by the arms and passed her back of her mother over the left-hand side of the car, and dropped her to the pavement. The child escaped without injury. When the cars collided, the Ford car which Mrs. Childs was driving was overturned, and Mrs. Van Dyke suffered the injuries for which this action was instituted. Other facts will be referred to in connection [380] with the consideration of the points to which they may be particularly germane.

It is first claimed that the trial judge committed prejudicial error in stating the issues to the jury, in that he failed to state that the affirmative defense contained in the answer was denied by a reply. The court stated the allegations of the complaint in general terms, and concluded this statement with the suggestion that “all of which will more fully appear from an examination of the pleadings in this case which you will be permitted to take with you to your jury room.” The jury were then told that certain allegations of the complaint were admitted and that others were denied, and that by way of an affirmative defense it was alleged that the accident was due to the negligence of Mrs. Childs in the operation of her car. The attention of the jury was not specifically directed to the fact that the affirmative defense pleaded was denied by a reply. In the course of the instructions upon the law, the court told the jury that the burden of proof was upon the plaintiffs to establish the material allegations of their complaint by a fair preponderance of the evidence; and that “a corresponding duty devolves upon the defendants to establish their affirmative defense by a like preponderance of the evidence.” The plaintiffs made no request, so far as the record shows, that the issues be stated more completely, nor did they call the trial court’s attention to the matter in any form at the time the instructions were given. It was doubtless through inadvertence that the jury were not told that the affirmative defense was denied by the reply. It does not seem that the jury could possibly have been misled by this oversight. The instruction that the defendants must prove their affirmative defense by a fair preponderance of the evidence would negative any inference that such defense was not denied. The evidence in fact showed that this defense was controverted.

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Dyke v. Johnson, 82 Wash. 377 (Wash. 1914).

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