Cheichi v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 66 Wash. 36
• 118 P. 916
• 1911 Wash. LEXIS 1008

Syllabus

<p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error — Ground for New Trial — Instructions Cured. In an action for personal injuries sustained through alleged defects in a work ear which jumped the track, it is not such error as to warrant the granting of a new trial to instruct the jury that the plaintiff could not recover if the jumping of the track was the result of a dangerous rate of speed combined with an unsafe condition of the car, without distinguishing between a dangerous rate of speed for a car in good condition and one in bad condition, where in numerous other instructions the jury were told that the plaintiff could not recover even if the car was in an unsafe condition, unless the jumping of the track was the result of such unsafe condition.</p> <p>Master and Servant — Negligence — Operation of Trains — Instructions. While a trainman operating a defective car at excessive speed so that it jumped the track cannot recover if the jumping of the track .was the result of such unsafe condition combined with the dangerous rate of speed, yet an instruction that, if the jumping of the track was the result of a dangerous rate of speed, the plaintiff could not recover, would naturally be understood by the jury as having reference to the particular car, and it would be unnecessary to draw a distinction between the rate of speed for a ear in good condition and one that was in an unsafe condition.</p>