Kelly v. Navy Yard Route

Citations

• 77 Wash. 148
• 137 P. 444
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1909

Syllabus

<p>Carriers — Injury to Passengers — Assault by Fellow Passengers — Duty of Protection — Question for Jury. Whether a steamship company exercised the highest degree of care demanded by the circumstances to protect a passenger from the renewal of an assault by a drunken fellow passenger, and whether it had reasonable grounds to anticipate a recurrence of the assault and took effective means to guard against it, are questions for the jury, where plaintiff was brutally assaulted without provocation, by a powerful and dangerous drunken passenger, and the steward, after stopping the first assault, induced the assailant to go to another room telling a fireman to keep an eye on those concerned, there being no one present to prevent a renewal of the assault about 10 minutes later.</p> <p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error — Instructions—Carriers. In an action by a passenger for the renewal of an assault by a drunken fellow passenger, an instruction that the master on board ship must protect passengers, and is considered as committing that which he does not prevent, while erroneous standing alone, is not prejudicial when read in connection with other instructions to the effect that the jury must find notice of the character of the assailant, and reason to anticipate a renewal of the assault.</p> <p>Same. Instructions having no relevancy to the issues and so glaringly inapplicable to the facts that the jury could not have been misled are not prejudicial.</p> <p>Carriers — Assault by Fellow Passenger — Excessive Verdict. A verdict for $1,000 for an assault upon a passenger, who was badly beaten up and suffered partial loss of hearing, coupled with humiliation and loss of time, is not excessive.</p>