Hart v. Cascade Timber Co.

Citations

• 39 Wash. 279
• 81 P. 738
• 1905 Wash. LEXIS 858

Syllabus

<p>Trial—By Jury—Failing to Demand When Set for Trial— Discretion. It is discretionary to award a jury trial although the same was not demanded when the case was set for trial in the manner required by Laws 1903, p. 50, and error cannot be predicated thereon.</p> <p>Appeal — Review — Evidence — Conclusion — Harmless Error. The admission of evidence objected to on the ground that it is a mere conclusion of the witness is harmless where the witness had previously given substantially the same testimony without objection.</p> <p>Same—Evidence Stricken Out. Error cannot be predicated upon an incompetent voluntary'statement of the party, when being examined as a witness, which was immediately stricken out on motion of the appellant.</p> <p>Master and Servant — Negligence — Evidence — Sufficiency — Questions fob Jury. In an action for personal injuries sustained by a logger caught between a log and a car, by reason of slack in a cable upon the drum of a logging engine, the minds of reasonable men may differ, and the evidence makes a case for the jury, on the questions of negligence, contributory negligence, assumed risk, and negligence of a fellow servant, where witnesses testified that the drum was constructed to be used with a brake to take up the slack in the cable, that the appliances used in place of a brake upon the drum were unsafe and dangerous, that plaintiff knew nothing whatever concerning them or their operation, that the fellow servant, the engineer, operated the same with due care and took up all slack in the cable before applying the power, and that the plaintiff was injured through the failure of the appliances to take up the slack as would have been done in case the brake or a suitable appliance had been used, notwithstanding evidence that it was not customary to use a brake, the same being dispensed with to lessen the labor of the loading crew.</p> <p>Damages—-Excessive Verdict—Reduction. A verdict for $5,000 damages for personal injuries sustained by a l