Bailey v. Tacoma Traction Co.

Citations

• 16 Wash. 48
• 47 P. 241
• 1896 Wash. LEXIS 9

Syllabus

<p>NEGLIGENCE—OPERATION OP ELECTRIC CARS — INJURY TO PASSENGER — CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE — SPECIAL INTERROGATORIES.</p> <p>It is negligence on the part of a street railway company to so schedule the trips of its electric cars as to require a car from a branch line to come upon the main line and pass through a certain switch within two minutes after another car should have passed there going in the opposite direction, when no provision has been made by signal, flag, register or otherwise to show whether or not the car first due has passed through the switch.</p> <p>A passenger upon an electric street car, who has been injured through the collision of two cars, is not chargeable with contributory negligence per se by reason of his occupying a stool upon the front platform of the car, when his being there is not in disobedience of any order or rule of the company, but in reality with its sanction, since it had become a custom of this passenger and of others to ride upon the platform, and the conductor had been in the habit of collecting fares from passengers riding there.</p> <p>The question of the submission to the jury of special interrogatories is addressed to the discretion of the trial court, and is not reviewable on appeal.</p>