Barnum v. State

This appeal arises from an action instituted by the plaintiff (appellant), an inmate of the Washington State Penitentiary, against the state of Washington, the Director of the Department of Institutions, the Superintendent of the Penitentiary, and Jesse Merril, defendants (respondents), for personal injuries sustained in an assault committed upon the plaintiff by Merril, a fellow inmate.

The plaintiff alleges in his complaint that Merril, for a period of several years prior to the assault, was a person with a dangerously violent psycopathic personality; that he had a record of repeated…