Morrison v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 34 Wash. 70
• 74 P. 1064
• 1904 Wash. LEXIS 312

Syllabus

<p>Master and Servant — -Parties—Joinder in Action for Negligence of Servant. An action for tortious negligence may be maintained jointly against a railroad company and the conductor of its train for injuries resulting from the negligent act of the conductor.</p> <p>Evidence — Harmless Error — Rule of Railroad Company— Fact Otherwise Established. The erroneous admission in evidence of a rule of a railroad company from which the jury would be led to believe that a conductor bad the. right to direct the movement of trains in passing, as senior conductor, is harmless where the conductor testifies on behalf of -the party objecting that he had such right in any event from the position of the trains in question.</p> <p>Trial — Special Verdict — Discretion. The submission of special interrogatories to the jury is discretionary, and is not reviewable on appeal.</p> <p>Railroads — Negligence in Passing of Trains — Fellow Servants — Engineer or Conductor in Charge of the Movement — • Instructions. When a number of freight trains had orders to pass at a certain siding which was not long enough to hold the trains going in either direction, necessitating as claimed, that they “saw by,” and a brakeman on an eastbound train is injured in a collision caused by the alleged negligence of the conductor on a westbound train in attempting such operation by running his train past the switch before the arrival of the second eastbound train; and it is claimed by the defendants that the engineer on the westbound train was responsible instead of the conductor in that he had control of the train, held:</p> <p>(1) That an instruction that said westbound engineer was a fellow servant of plaintiff is properly refused on the theory that, if he was responsible in having the control of the operation of the trains in passing, he was a vice-principal.</p> <p>(2) That the defendants’ view of the law relative to the responsibilities of said engineer was given in any event by an instruction to the effec