Wheeler v. Hotel Stevens Co.

Citations

• 71 Wash. 142
• 127 P. 840
• 1912 Wash. LEXIS 709

Syllabus

<p>Carriers — Elevators—Injury to Passenger — Contributory Negligence — Instructions. It is contributory negligence, precluding any recovery for a fall down an elevator shaft, for the passenger to open the elevator door, which he found substantially closed, and step into the shaft for the purpose of taking the elevator without looking to see if it was there.</p> <p>Trial — Instructions—Weight and Sufficiency of Evidence. Instructions basing the right of recovery entirely on belief in the plaintiff’s version of a disputed fact are proper where there was direct conflict on an essential matter and no middle ground on which a verdict could be predicated.</p> <p>Trial — Written Instructions — Necessity. When the parties stipulated that instructions might be partly oral and partly in writing, they may be so given.</p> <p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error — Instructions. It is not prejudicial error that instructions were given to the jury after the argument, in disregard of the statute.</p> <p>Trial — Cautionary Instructions — Sympathy and Prejudice. Where there is a seeming necessity, the jury may be cautioned not to allow sympathy or prejudice to influence the verdict.</p> <p>Trial — Instructions—Misleading Instructions. Instructions directing the jury to find the facts according to their conscientious belief are not misleading as addressed to their consciences rather than their minds.</p>