Gannaway v. Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Co.

• Decision Date: 04 February 1914
• Citation: 138 P. 267,77 Wash. 655
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: GANNAWAY et ux. v. PUGET SOUND TRACTION, LIGHT & POWER CO.

138 P. 267

77 Wash. 655

GANNAWAY et ux. v. PUGET SOUND TRACTION, LIGHT & POWER CO.

Supreme Court of Washington

February 4, 1914

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

Action by C. R. Gannaway and wife against the Puget Sound Traction Light & Power Company. From a judgment for plaintiffs defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions to dismiss action.

Jas. B. Howe and A. J. Falknor, both of Seattle, for appellant.

Reynolds, Ballinger & Hutson, of Seattle, for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant owns and operates a street railway system in the city of Seattle. One of its lines, known as the Fauntleroy Park line, passes for a part of the way north along Twenty-Eighth Avenue Southwest to its junction with Andover street, where it turns to the right and passes on its way over that street. The track is laid to the left of the center of the streets. The street known as Twenty-Eighth Avenue Southwest is paved with planking for its full width on the right or east of the car tracks from its junction with Andover street for some distance south. There is no paving of any kind between the tracks, nor on the street to the left or west thereof. The cars operated over this line are of a large doubletrucked type, having a front and rear exit opening on the right of the car. Passengers traveling north over Twenty-Eighth Avenue Southwest, and desiring to alight at its junction with Andover street, are of necessity let out onto the east side of the track onto the planked way of the street. Those coming from the opposite direction must be let out on the other side, and for their accommodation, and for the accommodation of those desiring to take cars going in that direction, the appellant constructed a platform some five feet wide, extending south on Twenty-Eighth Avenue Southwest from its junction with Andover street for a distance of 30 feet. On the evening of April 29, 1912, the respondents, with some eight others, took passage on one of the appellant's cars at points south of junction of the streets named; their designation being such junction. When the car reached the junction it stopped at its usual stopping place to the right of the platform mentioned, and the party alighted from the rear exit onto the planked roadway to the right of the car, and on its opposite side from the platform. The party immediately passed to the rear of the car, crossed the car tracks, stepped upon the...