Walters v. Seattle, Renton & Southern Railway Co.

Citations

• 48 Wash. 233
• 93 P. 419
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 838

Syllabus

<p>Carriers — Injury to Passengers — Obstruction .on Track — Degree of Care — Instructions. In an action for personal injuries sustained in a street car collision, it is proper to refuse an instruction exonerating. the defendant from liability in case the motorman’s failure to avoid the collision, with the exercise of the highest degree of care, was due to some clay deposited on the track by “some agency not under the control of the defendant,” where the instruction omitted the qualification that the defendant must have exercised the highest degree of skill and care to have discovered and removed the obstruction.</p> <p>Same — Collision of Street Cabs — Presumptions—Pleading and Proof — Specific Allegations. The fact that the plaintiff was unable to prove the particular cause of a collision of street cars, as set forth in her complaint, does not deprive her of the benefit of the presumption that negligence is presumed from the happening of a collision, since that was alone the substance of the issue, and the particular cause alleged need not be proved.</p> <p>Witnesses — Cross-Examination • — • Credibility — Degrading Witness. Upon the cross-examination of a witness who had testified as to the proper manner of stopping a street car on a grade, a question as to certain charges preferred against him, upon which he was dismissed from the defendant’s employ, relates to a collateral matter which does not affect his credibility as to the fact testified to, and he may properly decline to answer; since the only purpose of the question was to expose him to disgrace. ></p>