Suell v. Jones

Citations

• 49 Wash. 582
• 96 P. 4
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 625

Syllabus

<p>Statutes — Implied Repeal — Municipal Corporations — Ordinances — Law of Road. An ordinance requiring vehicles going south to keep on the westerly side of the center of a street, and going north, on the easterly side, is not impliedly repealed by an ordinance to regulate the use and speed of automobiles which required that they keep to the right on meeting vehicles, and contained no repealing clause; since there is no express conflict and implied repeals are not favored.</p> <p>Damages — Personal Injuries — Evidence — Mortality Tables— Age — Admissibility. In an action for permanent injuries, mortality tables for the years between 54 and 60, to show plaintiff’s life expectancy, are admissible, although he is a negro and his age was not shown, except that he was born in slavery and was between fifty and fifty-six years old, the question of his age being for the jury.</p> <p>Same — Judicial Notice — Plaintiff’s Acceptability for Insurance. Standard mortality tables are admissible in evidence to show plaintiff’s life expectancy without proving that he was acceptable for insurance, inasmuch as judicial notice may be taken that the authoritative tables differ but slightly, and that many are not based upon insurance statistics.</p> <p>Same — Instructions—Determining Amount. In an action for personal injuries, an instruction on the subject of damages does not authorize the jury to go outside the evidence, in that they were told to consider all the evidence in the case and all the facts and circumstances and use their own judgment in arriving at the amount that would in their opinion adequately compensate the plaintiff.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Negligence—Streets—Law of Road— Violation- — Instructions. In an action against the driver of an automobile for coming up behind and running over a street sweeper while driving on the wrong side of the street in violation of a city ordinance, it is proper to refuse to instruct the jury that obstructions on the other side of