Legal Opinion · Dissent
Curtin v. Clear Lake Lumber Co.
Washington Supreme Court
Decided October 8, 1907No. 6787Published
Appeal from a judgment of the superior court for Skagit . county, Joiner, J., entered January 7, 1907, upon the verdict of a jury rendered in favor of the plaintiff, in an action for personal injuries sustained by an employee struck by a limb from a falling tree.
1DissentRudkin, J.
(dissenting)-—I dissent. As stated in the majority opinion, “Nothing in the evidence showed that the absent witnesses were under the control of one party more than the other, or that their whereabouts were any better known to one than to the other,” and in such case there is no inference or presumption one way or the other.
In Scovill v. Baldwin, 27 Conn. 316, the court said:
“The circumstance that a particular person, who is equally within the control of both parties, is not called as a witness, is too often made the subject of comment before the jury. Such a fact lays no ground for any…
2Cases cited8 opinions
- Crawford v. StateSupreme Court of Alabama · 1895
- Scovill v. BaldwinSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1858
- Diel v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.Missouri Court of Appeals · 1889
- Nelms v. Steiner Bros.Supreme Court of Alabama · 1896
- Farmers' Bank v. WorthingtonSupreme Court of Missouri · 1898
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