Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of Washington Volume 49 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ...much reliance, the case of LaBce v. Sultan Logging Co., 47 Wash. 57, 91 Pac. 560. A rehearing has been granted in that case, and the decision of the case at bar is made without taking into consideration the opinion in the case cited. The rule invoked has Apr. 1908 Opinion Per Root, J. been recognized, however, in the cases of Firebaugh v. Seattle Eke. Co., 40 Wash. 658, 82 Pac. 995, 111 Am. St. 990, 2 L. R. A., N. S., 836, and Williams v. Spokane Falls cj Northern R. Co., 39 Wash.,77, 80 Pac. 1100. In the case of Griff en v. Manice, 166 N. Y. 188, 59 N. E. 925, 82 Am. St. 630, 52 L. R. A. 992, the court of appeals of New York applied the rule in a case where a passenger elevator in a building became unmanageable and a heavy counterweight fell down the shaft, killing a passenger in the elevator cage. In that case the trial court gave the following instruction: "There is another rule which the plaintiff asks me to call your attention, and I am going to call to your attention the rule that where an accident happens which, in the ordinary course of business, would not happen if the required degree of care was observed, the presumption is that such care was wanting, and if you find in this case that this accident was one which, in the ordinary course of business, would not have happened if the required degree of care was observed, you have a right to presume that such care was wanting." This was upheld by the court of appeals, which, among other things, quoted from Shearman & Redfield on Negligence, 59, as follows: "It is not that, in any case, negligence can be assumed from the mere fact of an accident and an injury; but in these cases the surrounding circumstances which are necessarily brought into view by showing how the...