Scarpelli v. Washington Water Power Co.

Citations

• 63 Wash. 18
• 114 P. 870
• 1911 Wash. LEXIS 1151

Syllabus

<p>Trial — Special Verdicts — Lack of Evidence. A special finding that brackets were too light to sustain a wire, when there was no evidence on the subject, is a mere conjecture and not controlling.</p> <p>Trial — Special Verdicts — Uncontroverted Evidence. . A special finding by a jury that a wire was not thrown down by a certain accident cannot- be sustained where it disregards the uncontradicted evidence in the case.</p> <p>Trial — Province of Court and Jury. Where plaintiffs prima facie case, sufficient on motion for a nonsuit, is so fully explained and controverted as to leave no substantial conflict, the case should be taken from the jury.</p> <p>Electricity — Negligence ■ — • Evidence — Presumptions — Trial — Question for Court. Where plaintiffs case rested upon the legal presumption of the negligence of the defendant in allowing one of its high-power wires to fall from its support, plaintiff showing no cause for the fall of the wire, and the defendant’s evidence showed that the power wire had just been knocked down by the breaking of a cable employed by the city in construction work on the street, which evidence was not controverted, there is no issuable fact for the jury, and the defendant was not guilty of negligence, as a matter of law; a presumption of law not being evidence of a fact or effective in the face of the opponent’s prima facie evidence.</p>