Kahaley v. Frye & Bruhn, Inc.

Citations

• 62 Wash. 43
• 113 P. 247
• 1911 Wash. LEXIS 644

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Streets—Runaway Teams — Injury to Pedestrian — Sufficiency of Negative Evidence. There is sufficient evidence to support a finding of the violation of a city ordinance making it unlawful to leave any team standing unless it is- securely fastened, where a delivery team equipped with a hitching weight ran away and eyewitnesses testified that they saw no weight dragging, although the driver testified on direct examination that he dropped the -weight and set the’ brake; and the testimony in support of -the verdict is not so purely negative as to preclude the jury from determining its weight, especially where the driver on cross-examination admitted that he sometimes did leave the team without hitching it.</p> <p>Same — Instructions. In an action for injuries through the running away of a team left unhitched, where proof of a custom of hitching teams by a weight was admitted to show the manner of hitching, upon an issue as to whether the driver dropped the weight, it is not error to instruct that the question was what the driver did and not what other teamsters were in the habit of doing.</p>