Opinion
No. 33221.
August 25, 1955.
AUTOMOBILES — LIABILITY FOR INJURIES — ACTIONS — PLEADING — FAILURE TO YIELD RIGHT OF WAY. Where the complaint of a disfavored driver seeking to recover damages for injuries sustained in an intersection collision discloses that he failed to yield the right of way to the defendant, who was the favored driver, and the complaint alleges no additional facts which would excuse that failure or permit recovery in spite of it, a demurrer on the ground of no facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action should be sustained; and, on failure to plead over, the complaint should be dismissed.
PLEADING — DEFECTS AND OBJECTIONS — OBJECTIONS TO RULINGS — WAIVER. When a motion or demurrer to a pleading is sustained and the pleader thereafter files an amended pleading, he thereby waives any error in the action of the court; and, in order to take advantage of error on such a ruling, the party must stand on his pleadings.
SAME — AMENDMENT OF COMPLAINT — OPERATION AND EFFECT. Any error in sustaining a demurrer to the plaintiff's third amended complaint was waived or abandoned when the fourth amended complaint was filed.
AUTOMOBILES — LIABILITY FOR INJURIES — DUTY TO YIELD RIGHT OF WAY — EFFECT OF FLASHING YELLOW SIGNAL. Under RCW 46.60.230, the presence of a flashing yellow signal at an intersection requires drivers of vehicles to proceed through such intersection only with caution; however, such a signal does not abrogate the rule granting right of way to the automobile approaching from the right.
See 58 A.L.R. 1197; 5 Am. Jur. 668.
Appeal from a judgment of the superior court for Clark county, No. 29624, Cushing, J., entered December 23, 1954, upon sustaining a demurrer to the complaint, dismissing an action for damages sustained in an automobile collision. Affirmed.
Wilkinson Langsdorf, for appellant.
McMullen, Snider McMullen, for respondents.
[1] Where the complaint of a disfavored driver seeking to recover damages for injuries sustained in an intersection collision discloses that he failed to yield the right of way to the defendant, who was the favored driver, and the complaint alleges no additional facts which would excuse that failure (such as deception by the defendant) or permit recovery in spite of it (such as that the defendant had the last clear chance to avoid the collision), a demurrer on the ground of no facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action should be sustained, and, on failure to plead over, the complaint should be dismissed.
The foregoing holding is decisive of the present case.
In the plaintiff's fourth amended complaint, it appears that he was the disfavored driver and failed to yield the right of way to the defendant, the favored driver, as required by law. RCW 46.60.150 [ cf. Rem. Rev. Stat., Vol. 7A, § 6360-88] or RCW 46.60.170 [ cf. Rem. Rev. Stat., Vol. 7A, § 6360-90].
It is recognized that, had the plaintiff alleged facts from which it might be found that the defendant had a last clear chance to avoid the accident, or had he alleged facts from which it might be found that he acted as he did because he had been deceived by some action of the favored driver into believing that he had a right to proceed, a demurrer should not have been sustained on the ground indicated. We find, however, no facts alleged in the fourth amended complaint on which a finding of last clear chance or deception could be predicated.
In his second amended complaint, the plaintiff did urge last clear chance, and he now assigns error because the trial court struck from that complaint the allegations concerning last clear chance. Thereafter, he filed his third amended complaint and, still later, his fourth amended complaint.
[2] It is well established that, when a motion or demurrer to a pleading is sustained and the pleader thereafter files an amended pleading, he thereby waives any error in the action of the court. In order to take advantage of error on a ruling sustaining a demurrer or motion, the party must stand on his pleadings. Goshert v. Wirth (1924), 130 Wn. 14, 226 P. 124; Sunset Motor Co. v. Woodruff (1924), 130 Wn. 516, 228 P. 519; King County v. Sutter (1954), 45 Wn.2d 326, 274 P.2d 347; 1 Bancroft Code Pleading 1015, § 723. See, also, Magee v. Cohn (1936), 187 Wn. 157, 59 P.2d 1131.
[3] On the basis of the authorities just cited, any error in sustaining a demurrer to the plaintiff's third amended complaint was waived (although we find no indication in the transcript that a demurrer to that complaint was sustained); in any event, that complaint was abandoned when the fourth amended complaint was filed. Seeley v. Gilbert (1943), 16 Wn.2d 611, 134 P.2d 710; Skidmore v. Pacific Creditors (1943), 18 Wn.2d 157, 138 P.2d 664.
[4] The plaintiff places great emphasis upon the fact that a flashing yellow signal was visible to the defendant as he approached the intersection, and that, by statute (RCW 46.60.230, Laws of 1951, chapter 56, § 3), ". . . drivers of vehicles may proceed through the intersection or past such signal only with caution."
Failure to obey the statute in question would be negligence on the part of the defendant, but the flashing light would afford no excuse for the disfavored driver's failure to yield the right of way. Such a flashing yellow light does "not abrogate the rule granting right of way to the automobile approaching from the right." 2 Blashfield, Cyclopedia of Automobile Law Practice (Perm. ed.) 257, § 1005. See Langdon v. Cincinnati St. R. Co. (1943), 75 Ohio App. 482, 62 N.E.2d 380.
Judgment of dismissal affirmed.
HAMLEY, C.J., MALLERY, WEAVER, and ROSELLINI, JJ., concur.