McLeod v. City of Spokane

Citations

• 26 Wash. 346
• 67 P. 74
• 1901 Wash. LEXIS 652

Syllabus

<p>MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS NEGLIGENCE ■— OPENING IN SIDEWALK -EVIDENCE.</p> <p>In an action against a city to recover for injuries received by falling into an open cellar way in a sidewalk, which gave access to the basement of a building, it was not error to exclude evidence of the fact that there were a large number of such cellar-ways in the city.</p> <p>SAME-VARIANCE.</p> <p>In an action against a city for damages brought by husband and wife for injuries to the wife, the claim for damages filed with the city council, as required before the bringing of an action, is admissible, although verified by the wife alone.</p> <p>SAME-ORDINANCES.</p> <p>In an action based on a city’s negligence in allowing a cellar way to remain open and unguarded, an ordinance regulating the construction and safeguarding of such cellar ways is admissible in evidence as a declaration of the city concerning a matter involved in the action.</p> <p>SAME —■ INSTRUCTIONS.</p> <p>A charge to the jury that if there was an ordinance in force providing that cellar ways on streets or sidewalks should be protected, then it was the duty of the city to require the same to be so protected as to be safe against injury to a person traveling thereon, is not erroneous on the ground of conveying the idea of a duty superadded to that imposed by the common law.</p> <p>SAME-RELEVANCY OE EVIDENCE TO ISSUES.</p> <p>In the trial of an action upon a complaint alleging that the city “carelessly and negligently allowed and permitted a cellar way to be and remain open” in one of its public streets, negligence in the manner of lighting the opening is admissible, as the charge of negligence is broad enough to cover that as well as the act of permitting the cellar way to remain open.</p> <p>SAME-INSTRUCTIONS-RELEVANCY.</p> <p>Under such, issues, an instruction was properly refused, which charged that if the fall was caused by darkness, or arose from any other cause than the existence of an open cellar way, the verdict sho