Church v. Shaffer, 22833.
| Decision Date | 14 April 1931 |
| Docket Number | 22833. |
| Citation | 162 Wash. 126,297 P. 1097 |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
| Parties | CHURCH et ux. v. SHAFFER et ux. |
Department 1.
Appeal from Superior Court, Snohomish County; Guy C. Alston, Judge.
Action by G. A. Church and wife against Frank R. Shaffer and wife. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants appeal.
Affirmed.
Joseph H. Smith, of Everett, for appellants.
Trefethen & Porterfield, of Seattle, and Q. A. Kaune, of Everett, for respondents.
This action for damages resulted from a collision between the automobiles of respondents and of appellants, at the intersection of Dexter avenue and Roy street in Seattle. Respondents alleged in their amended complaint that the collision was the result of negligence on the part of appellants, and appellants defended on the ground that respondents were guilty of contributory negligence which caused the accident. The case was tried to the court, without a jury, who found in favor of respondents.
Dexter avenue is an arterial street in Seattle, running in a general northerly and southerly direction, and for two or three blocks on either side of the intersection of Roy street is fairly level. Roy street runs in a general easterly and westerly direction and crosses Dexter avenue at right angles. From a point two blocks east, on Ninth avenue, Roy street is slightly up grade to Dexter avenue, and the block immediately west of Dexter avenue is a grade of about 7 per cent. There is a traffic light at the intersection of Roy and Dexter avenue, and the traffic light is open slightly longer for the traffic on Dexter avenue than on Roy street.
Respondent the husband, was traveling, from the intersection of Ninth and Roy streets, westward on Roy street and approaching the intersection in question. He testified to having been traveling at the rate of about twenty miles an hour, but that he had the green light at all times and went into the intersection with the green light in his favor.
Appellants were traveling south on Dexter avenue at a rate of speed claimed by them to have been twenty-five miles an hour and had the red light against them for more than three blocks. The testified that the first bell for change of traffic signals rang as they were slowing up to stop at the intersection, and as they were coasting into the intersection the second bell rang, at with time respondents' car passed in front of them at a high rate of speed, estimated by appellants to have been forty or forty-five miles an hour. The car of respondents was struck on the right side, near the rear, was sent on up the grade on Roy street for about ninety feet, turned over, and rolled up hill, coming to a stop with the four wheels in the air. Appellants stopped their car alongside the curb on Roy street within about twenty feet. The car of respondents was equipped with four-wheel brakes while that of appellants had only two-wheel brakes. Appellants claimed to have looked both to the right and left and that respondents' car was about two car lengths from the intersection when the traffic bell rang closing traffic on...
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Channel v. Mills, 15857-4-II
...driver is speeding at a controlled intersection, and a disfavored driver runs the red light or stop sign. E.g., Church v. Shaffer, 162 Wash. 126, 297 P. 1097 (1931); Baker v. Herman Mut. Ins. Co. 17 Wis.2d 597, 117 N.W.2d 725, 728-29 (1962). In another, the favored driver is speeding at an ......
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Gunderson v. Asbury, No. 31685-4-II (WA 8/16/2005)
...intersection and a disfavored driver runs the red light or stop sign. See Channel, 77 Wn. App. at 271-72 (citing Church v. Shaffer, 162 Wash. 126, 297 P. 1097 (1931); Baker v. Herman Mut. Ins. Co., 17 Wis. 2d 597, 117 N.W.2d 725, 728-29 When a court's inquiry is only whether the vehicles wo......
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Stillwell v. Grubaugh
...which might enter the intersection in violation of the signal. (Travis v. Eisenlord, 256 Mich. 264, 239 N.W. 304; Church v. Shaffer, 162 Wash. 126, 297 P. 1097, 1098; cf Randall v. Evans, 4 Cal.App.2d 575, 576, 41 P.2d 561.)' I concurred with Justice Butzel in the Ortisi and Buehler decisio......
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Beck v. Dye
... ... or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known, ... the contrary. Church v. Shaffer, 162 Wash. 126, 297 ... P. 1097; Woods v. Greenblatt, 163 Wash. 433, 1 P.2d ... ...