Gosa v. Hyde

• Citation: 202 P. 274,117 Wash. 672
• Decision Date: 07 December 1921
• Docket Number: 16632.
• Parties: GOSA et al. v. HYDE et ux.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Washington

202 P. 274

117 Wash. 672

GOSA et al. v. HYDE et ux.

No. 16632.

Supreme Court of Washington

December 7, 1921

Department 1.

Appeal from Superior Court, King County; Austin E. Griffith, Judge.

Action by Della Gosa and husband against J. Addison Hyde and wife. From judgment for plaintiffs, defendants appeal. Reversed and remanded.

Preston, Thorgrimson & Turner, of Seattle, for appellants.

Crowder & Crowder, of Seattle, for respondents.

TOLMAN J.

This is an action to recover for personal injuries received by respondent, Della Gosa as a result of being struck by appellants' automobile. The case was tried to a jury which rendered a verdict against appellants in the sum of $1,500, and from a judgment on the verdict they appeal.

It is first contended that the jury should have been instructed to find a verdict in favor of appellants, or, failing that, the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict should have been granted. This requires an examination of the evidence to determine whether it was sufficient to take the case to the jury.

The facts, either admitted or which the jury might find from the evidence submitted, are substantially as follows: The accident happened on Rainier avenue in the city of Seattle in front of the plant of the Black Manufacturing Company. Rainier avenue at this point has a paved roadway on each side 17 feet in width, and in the center is an 18-foot unpaved strip, occupied by a double line of street car tracks. It was the custom for a special street car bound cityward to stop in front of the plant on the easterly track, some distance from the street intersection, to receive the employees desiring to use it at closing time in the afternoon, and on this occasion the street car was so standing when, at about 4:45 p. m Mrs. Gosa and some hundreds of others were released from their labors and poured out into the street intent on going to their homes. Those going cityward boarded the standing street car, and those going in the opposite direction passed across the street to take the street car then about due, bound southward, which also customarily stopped in front of the plant at that hour to receive passengers. Mrs. Gosa, desiring to take the approaching south-bound car, stepped into the street, passed behind the standing street car, and, following a number of others who were so proceeding, and followed by one or more, was passing over the unpaved portion of the street containing the tracks when she stumbled and fell, or partly fell on her hands and one knee; her hands at least extending out over and onto the westerly paved roadway. Just at this time the south-bound street car, which had for several blocks been traveling at a speed of 20 miles per hour or more, had approached so close to the usual stopping place that the motorman had applied the brakes, and was bringing the car to a stop, and Mrs. Hyde, driving a Dodge touring car, who had been pacing along beside the street car, drew ahead of it, and, seeing an automobile parked next to the curb on her right, turned her machine to the left to avoid it. As she passed beyond the parked car, notwithstanding the narrowness of the paved roadway upon which she was traveling, she had sufficient room to turn again towards the right and avoid...