Lyon v. Tumwater Evangelical Free Church
| Decision Date | 18 August 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 33195,33195 |
| Citation | 47 Wn.2d 202,287 P.2d 128 |
| Parties | Darrol Lee LYON, by Alice Lyon, Guardian ad litem, Appellant, v. TUMWATER EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCH, a religious corporation, Respondent. |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
Foster & Foster, Olympia, for appellant.
Smith Troy, Philip W. Richardson, Olympia, for respondent.
This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing an action for damages arising out of an accident.
In 1932 the Tumwater Evangelical Free Church was incorporated as a nonprofit, religious organization under the predecessor of RCW Chapter 24.08, providing for the incorporation of educational, religious, benevolent, or charitable societies, and has continued since that time to operate as such. The church operated a bus every Sunday in order to transport children, without charge, to and from Sunday School. The driver of the bus, who was one of the original incorporators of the church organization, and who, at the time of the accident involved in this lawsuit, was the president of the congregation, testified as to the purpose of operating the bus:
* * *'
As to his three children who have all attended Sunday school, he testified:
He had driven the bus for nine years without an accident and testified concerning his selection:
The bus was a 1935 Chevrolet. The two seats ran lengthwise and would accommodate twenty-four passengers.
On Sunday morning, February 1, 1953, the driver was proceeding westerly toward the church on the Fairview road in Thurston county. He and seven passengers were in the bus. The driver saw a car coming from the opposite direction and gradually moved over to the side of the road. He testified that, although both wheels were on the road, the bus began to scratch the brush that was leaning over the right of way. Suddenly he felt the bus jerk. A log which was lying in the brush came through the window of the right door, broke off, knocked the windshield out, and hit and severely injured the plaintiff, an eleven-year-old boy.
This action for damages was commenced by the boy through his guardian ad litem,...
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Lokar v. Church of the Sacred Heart, Mount Ephraim
...Pierce v. Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital Ass'n, supra; Avellone v. St. John's Hospital, supra. But cf. Lyon v. Tumwater Evangelical Free Church, 47 Wash.2d 202, 287 P.2d 128 (1955), criticized in Westberg, 'The Questionable Status of the Charitable Immunity,' 31 Wash.L.Rev. 287 (1956). See......
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Clark v. Ruidoso-Hondo Valley Hospital
...Madison, 1960, 142 Colo. 1, 351 P.2d 826; Kilbourn v. City of Seattle, 1953, 43 Wash.2d 373, 261 P.2d 407; Lyon v. Tumwater Evangelical Free Church, 1955, 47 Wash.2d 202, 287 P.2d 128; McDowell v. Mackie, 1961, 365 Mich. 268, 112 S.W.2d 491; Sayers v. School District No. 1, 1962, 366 Mich. ......
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Gibbon v. Young Women's Christian Ass'n of Hamilton
...caused by the negligence of employees.' Two years later the Supreme Court of Washington, in the case of Lyon v. Tumwater Evangelical Free Church, 1955, 47 Wash.2d 202, 287 P.2d 128, 129, held the defendant nonprofit religious organization immune from liability. In the opinion by Schwellenba......
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Widell v. Holy Trinity Catholic Church
...cases of Tomasello v. Hoban, Bishop, and St. Cecelia's Church (1958), Ohio Com.Pl., 155 N.E.2d 82, and Lyon v. Tumwater Evangelical Free Church (1955), 47 Wash.2d 202, 287 P.2d 128, which upheld the doctrine of religious immunity although previously abolishing immunity in hospital cases. Th......