Peterson v. Pallis

• Decision Date: 16 July 1918
• Docket Number: 14779.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: PETERSON v. PALLIS.

173 P. 1021

103 Wash. 180

PETERSON v. PALLIS.

No. 14779.

Supreme Court of Washington

July 16, 1918

Department 2. Appeal from Superior Court, King County; Everett Smith Judge.

Action by Edward Peterson against Chris Pallis. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded for new trial.

Ryan &amp Desmond, of Seattle, for appellant.

Oscar G. Heaton, of Seattle, for respondent.

CHADWICK, J.

This action arises out of a collision between plaintiff's motorcycle and defendant's automobile. Trial was had resulting in a verdict in favor of plaintiff.

It will be necessary to notice but two assignments of error. The first is that the court erred in overruling the motion to strike certain matter from the amended complaint and thereafter erred in denying defendant motion to make the complaint more definite and certain. Plaintiff alleges:

'That said accident happened more particularly as follows, to wit: The plaintiff is in the employ of the Seattle Construction & Dry Dock Company, as a ship carpenter and received a salary of $7.50 per day of ten hours; that on the day in question, which was Saturday, the employés of said company ceased work at noon; that a large number of them were crossing said Whatcom avenue at the hour above mentioned that plaintiff was on the south side of said body of men, on his motorcycle, and was not going faster than three or four miles per hour, and had reached a point past the middle or east of the middle line of said street and was just in the act of turning north upon the east side of said street when the defendant, driving negligently and carelessly and at an unlawful rate of speed in a southerly direction upon the easterly side of said avenue, struck plaintiff's motorcycle, turning it around in the opposite direction from which it was going, and knocked plaintiff off said motorcycle and ran completely over said plaintiff and his said motorcycle.'

This was followed by a plea of Ordinance No. 24597 of the city of Seattle, by title. The statute, Rem. Code, § 291, provides that when an ordinance is so pleaded the court shall take judicial notice of the ordinance and its tenor and effect. It is provided in the ordinance that automobiles shall not be driven at a speed greater than 20 miles per hour between street intersections. The legal effect of the pleading is that the automobile was driven at a greater speed than 20 miles an hour. The allegation therefore that the automobile was driven at an unlawful rate of speed and upon the easterly side of the avenue made the complaint good as against a motion to strike and a motion to make more definite and certain.

The court...