Chase v. City of Seattle

• Decision Date: 06 June 1914
• Docket Number: 11755.
• Citation: 141 P. 180,80 Wash. 61
• Parties: CHASE v. CITY OF SEATTLE.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

141 P. 180

80 Wash. 61

CHASE v. CITY OF SEATTLE.

No. 11755.

Supreme Court of Washington

June 6, 1914

Department 2. Appeal from Superior Court, King County; Mitchell Gilliam Judge.

Action by Wallace F. Chase against the City of Seattle. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Tucker & Hyland, of Seattle, for appellant.

Jas. E Bradford and Melvin S. Good, both of Seattle, for respondent.

FULLERTON J.

The appellant brought this action against the city of Seattle to recover for personal injuries. As the trial the jury returned a verdict in his favor for $1,000. Subsequently the court, on the motion of the city, granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict. This appeal is from the judgment so entered.

At the time of the injury the city was, through its contractor constructing a sewer along Twelfth Avenue Northeast, a street within the city, with the usual and customary drains connecting therewith. The work had progressed to Fifty-Sixth street, and at that point excavations had been sunk in Twelfth Avenue Northeast to the sewer level at convenient distances apart for tunneling between them. One such excavation had been sunk in the center of the street where it intersected Fifty-Sixth street, and two more had been sunk south therefrom, the first some 18 feet from the first-mentioned excavation, and the other some 16 feet from the last. Catch basins were placed at the corners of the streets, and drains therefrom connected with the sewer. It was the policy of the city to leave a passageway for vehicles along the street while the work of the sewer was in progress and for that purpose the earth taken from the excavations was thrown on the street to the east of the excavations, and the earth from the catch basin on the margin of the streets, in such a way as not to obstruct the passageway. The catch basin at the southwest corner of the junction of streets named had been inserted just prior to the time of the injury, and the excavation left surrounding it filled with earth. A rain had fallen the night before, which caused this earth to settle somewhat, leaving the top of the fill some 12 inches, as estimated by one witness, and 8 inches, as measured by another, below the common level of the street.

On the day of the injury the appellant hauled a load of wood to a customer of his employer who lived in the vicinity of the street being improved. His course took him north along the west side of Twelfth Avenue Southeast until he reached Fifty-Sixth street, where he turned west on that street. In going with the load, he made the turn with safety, although he says he was obliged to drive his team over a pile of dirt thrown up in the street from an excavation for a catch basin. On his return with the empty wagon he passed over the same course, but seems, on reaching the turn, not to have made any allowance for the swing of the team which he found necessary on his outward course, but turned abruptly into the cross street. The result was that...