Heath v. Seattle Taxicab Co.

Citations

• 73 Wash. 177
• 131 P. 843
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1574

Syllabus

<p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error — Instructions. An instruction assuming a fact not in evidence, while faulty, is not prejudicially erroneous where the only purpose and meaning that it would naturally convey was to cover a general principle, and was without prejudice in view of the controlling issue of fact discussed in the next instruction.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Streets—Ordinances—Speed Limit— Construction. An ordinance fixing the speed limit for automobiles on “paved” streets applies to a street that is “planked,” the term “paving” including any artificial surface that changes the natural surface.</p> <p>Appeal — Review — Harmless Error — Instructions. Where an automobile was confessedly exceeding the city speed limit of twelve miles an hour, and the only issue was as to whether it struck the plaintiff, it is harmless error to instruct that the driver was negligent if he was exceeding the speed limit, stated at eight miles an hour, and that it was plaintiff’s duty, as a policeman, to arrest the driver if he was exceeding the speed limit.</p> <p>Same. In an action for personal injuries sustained by a policeman struck by an automobile, an objection that an instruction assumed that he was standing at a street intersection, when he was three or four feet therefrom, is hypercritical, especially since he had a right to be in the street, and there was no issue as to the speed of the automobile.</p> <p>Same. In an action for personal injuries sustained when defendant’s automobile struck the plaintiff, an instruction to the effect that the acquittal of the driver on a charge of exceeding the speed limit precluded his arrest on another criminal charge is harmless, where the jury were plainly told that it could not be considered in the civil case.</p> <p>Damages — Personal Injuries — Reduction — Pension. A police pension, under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 8078, being in the nature of accident insurance for which consideration is paid by deduction from the officer’s monthl