Hilgar v. City of Walla Walla

Citations

• 50 Wash. 470
• 97 P. 498
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 765

Syllabus

<p>Master and Servant — Safe Place — Excavations—Evidence of Negligence — Sufficiency. It is a fair inference that a place was rendered unsafe by the negligence of the master where the evidence showed that, in excavating for a pipe line where the pipe forked, a tongue of earth was left, that the removal of the same was attempted under the direct supervision of a foreman, by undermining and pushing over sections, one of which fell on the deceased while working as instructed at a certain place, and that the sections were too long to be handled with safety unless braced.</p> <p>Same — Contributory Negligence — Assurance of Master — Obvious Dangers. An employee is not guilty of contributory negligence in working in a ditch seven feet deep, undermining a section of earth, where it appears that he was called by the foreman from other work and instructed to assist in that particular work at a certain place; since he had a right to rely on the assurance of the master as to the safety of the place selected, unless the danger was so obvious that there could be no tw.o opinions about it.</p>