Arpagaus v. Washington Water Power Co.

Citations

• 86 Wash. 83
• 149 P. 346
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 1183

Syllabus

<p>Street Railroads — Injuries—Collision with Vehicle — Contributory Negligence — Evidence—Sotitciency. A driver of a team of horses is guilty of contributory negligence, as a matter of law, precluding any recovery for his death caused by colliding with an approaching car, where it appears that he was driving west on the wrong side of the street or making a diagonal cut across a jog in the street, and in a place where the law of the road and common prudence required him not to be in, that he could have seen the approaching car in time to avoid the accident had he looked when he came in view before driving onto the track, but turned his horses at right angles abruptly in front of the car so that the off horse was struck in the shoulder and the accident made inevitable (Holcomb, J., dissents).</p> <p>Same — Negligence—Proximate Cause. Liability in such a case cannot rest upon the rule of wilful and wanton injury, as the proximate cause, since there was nothing to indicate to the motorman that the deceased intended to pull across the track, until the moment of the collision.</p>