Pugh v. Oregon Improvement Co.

Citations

• 14 Wash. 331
• 44 P. 547
• 1896 Wash. LEXIS 370

Syllabus

<p>PLEADING — INCONSISTENT DEFENSES — NEGLIGENCE — FIRE IN MINE — CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for death resulting from the alleged negligence of defendant, an answer denying negligence, and setting up further, that, if there was any, the plaintiff’s intestate was guilty of contributory negligence, is not objectionable as setting up inconsistent defenses.</p> <p>Although the stopping of a ventilating fan, upon the discovery of a fire in a coal mine, may have been an act of negligence on the part of the mining company, yet there can be no recovery for the death of a miner resulting therefrom, when it appears that he had ample warning of the fire, in time to have escaped from the mine; but that he remained to watch it, and that escape was finally prevented by the act of a fellow miner in opening a tunnel door, thereby allowing the smoke to pour into a passageway, which was apparently safe, and suffocate the deceased.</p>