Goldfarb v. Wright

For about 10 seconds, Royal H. Goldfarb waited at the intersection of Mercer Street and Westlake Avenue in Seattle, Washington, for the traffic light to change from red to green. Suddenly, a following car driven by the defendant, Elizabeth O. Wright, failed to stop and struck the rear of his stopped vehicle. Goldfarb said he was injured and brought suit alleging Elizabeth Wright was negligent in running into his car. She denied any negligence.

In the trial that followed, the defendant blamed her failure to stop on defective brakes. She explained to the jury that she had borrowed the car…