Thompson v. Seattle, Renton & Southern Railway Co.

Citations

• 71 Wash. 436
• 128 P. 1070
• 1912 Wash. LEXIS 770

Syllabus

<p>Abatement and Revival — Survival of Action for Death — Statutes — Construction—Gender of Pronoun. Rem. & Bal. Code, § 194, providing that no action for a personal injury to any person occasioning his death shall abate if he have a wife or child living etc., or certain other relations dependent on him for support, is not confined to injuries to male persons, in view of § 144, requiring a liberal construction of the code, and § 148, providing that words importing the masculine gender may be extended to females also; and in view of other -sections requiring such extension of the masculine pronoun.</p> <p>Same — Action for Death — Statutes—Construction. Such section is not to be confined to males, as the person upon whom the duty of support devolves.</p> <p>Death — Action for Wrongful Death — Proximate Cause. Where the immediate cause of a death was pleurisy with effusion, following an accident, the proximate cause of the death was the cause that produced the pleurisy with effusion.</p> <p>Death — Evidence—Death Certificate — Foreign Statutes— Presumptions. The presumption that the laws of a sister state are the same as our own, which provide that a death certificate filed with a county auditor shall be prima facie evidence of the facts recited, does not make a death certificate filed in a sister state prima facie evidence in the courts of this state.</p> <p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Eeeor — Instructions. In an action for personal injuries, revived on behalf of beirs after tbe death of the plaintiff, error in an instruction that the heirs could recover such a sum as the plaintiff could have recovered if she were alive at present, is cured, when, upon objections made, it was explained to cover only such pain and suffering as the plaintiff suffered up to the time of her death.</p> <p>Damages — Personal Injuries — Excessive Verdict. In an action for personal injuries, revived in favor of heirs upon the death of the plaintiff, in which the recovery is limited to the pain