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Mitchell v. United Buckingham Freight Lines

The Supreme Court of Washington. Department Two
Oct 20, 1966
419 P.2d 318 (Wash. 1966)

Opinion

No. 38172.

October 20, 1966.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court for King County, No. 607747, Edward E. Henry, J., entered October 2, 1964. Affirmed.

Action for personal injuries. Plaintiff appeals from a judgment entered on a verdict for the defendants.

Benn Agor, for appellant.

Kahin, Horswill, Keller, Rohrback, Waldo Moren, for respondents.



The sole question presented by plaintiff's four assignments of error is the court's refusal to give plaintiff's requested instruction that defendants were chargeable with negligence as a matter of law for their alleged violation of a city ordinance.

We find no merit in the assignments. The jury was correctly instructed; the requested instruction does not state the law.

Instruction No. 7 instructed the jury as to the applicable portion of the Seattle traffic ordinance which concerns parking at a place where traffic signs prohibit it.

Instruction No. 8 (to which no error was assigned) states:

The violation, if you find there was such a violation, of a statute or ordinance governing the operation of motor vehicles is negligence as a matter of law.

While the violation of a positive statute or ordinance is negligence, such negligence will not bar recovery on the part of a plaintiff, nor will it render a defendant liable for damages, unless such violation proximately contributed to or proximately caused the injury. (Italics ours.)

Plaintiff's requested instruction is deficient because it does not instruct that the violation of an ordinance must be a proximate cause of the accident.

The judgment of dismissal, entered after a jury verdict for defendant, is affirmed.


Summaries of

Mitchell v. United Buckingham Freight Lines

The Supreme Court of Washington. Department Two
Oct 20, 1966
419 P.2d 318 (Wash. 1966)
Case details for

Mitchell v. United Buckingham Freight Lines

Case Details

Full title:JAMES J. MITCHELL, Appellant, v. UNITED BUCKINGHAM FREIGHT LINES et al.…

Court:The Supreme Court of Washington. Department Two

Date published: Oct 20, 1966

Citations

419 P.2d 318 (Wash. 1966)
69 Wash. 2d 974
69 Wn. 2d 974