Benson v. City of Spokane

Citations

• 39 Wash. 101
• 80 P. 1106
• 1905 Wash. LEXIS 822

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations—Bridges—Negligence—Defective Condition—Duty of City—Instructions. In an action for personal injuries sustained through the defective condition of a bridge, an instruction not technically accurate, declaring it to be the duty of the city to use reasonable care to keep its bridges in good, safe condition, and to the effect that it would be liable for failure to so keep them in such condition, is not prejudicial error when immediately followed by an instruction that the law did not require the city to keep its bridges absolutely safe, and correctly defining ordinary care and limiting the duty of the city to reasonable and ordinary care in guarding against accidents.</p> <p>Same—Pleading and Proof—Unessential Details—Defect the Primary Cause of the Accident—Instructions. In an action for personal injuries sustained by reason of a defect in a bridge, which caused the horse to tip over the buggy, the plaintiff is not required to prove the allegation that the horse stepped into the hole and then violently backed off; and it is proper to instruct that the defendant is liable if the horse shied at the hole without stepping into it provided that the defect was such as to cause an ordinarily gentle horse to shy and the plaintiff was free from negligence; since proof of unimportant details explaining the result is not essential where the defect complained of is the primary cause of the accident.</p>