Atkeson v. Jackson Estate

Citations

• 72 Wash. 233
• 130 P. 102
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1440

Syllabus

<p>Carriers — Passenger Elevators — Negligent Construction —■ Common Use — Evidence—Sufficiency. There is sufficient evidence of negligence in the construction of a well and cage for an automatic elevator in an apartment house, intended to be used principally by women and children without any attendant, notwithstanding it was such as was commonly used in like buildings, where it appears that the floors projected into the well without any gate, door or protection inside the cage, which could have been easily installed, and that a child fell when the elevator started, falling with its head projecting over the unprotected edge of the cage, where it was caught and crushed by the next floor projecting into the elevator well.</p> <p>Same — Contributory Negligence of Passenger Operating Elevator — Evidence—Sufficiency. In such a case, the mother of a child two years old is not guilty of contributory negligence in attempting to use the elevator .with her children, where she entered the elevator with another infant in a baby buggy, carrying a number of packages, her experience with elevators had been limited, and she testified that she did not realize the danger of such an accident.</p> <p>Same — Proximate Cause of Accident — Evidence — Sufficiency. In such a case, recovery is not precluded by the fact that she testified she did not know what caused the child to fall, since falls by children of tender years should have been anticipated, and the failure to guard against the same was the proximate cause.</p> <p>Death —1 Wrongful Death — Infants — Measure of Damages — • Statutes — Evidence. Under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 184, providing that parents may maintain an action for the death of a child, which is construed to limit the recovery to the value of the child’s services to the age of majority, substantial damages may be recovered, without proof of special pecuniary loss, for the death of a baby girl, notwithstanding the parents are in comfortable circumstances financially, and ca