44 Wash. 72 | Wash. | 1906
This is an action to recover upon a contract for laying water pipe under the Chehalis river, and for damages alleged to have been caused by the city having furnished defective material. Under the contract the work was to be done by the respondents, and the material to be furnished by the city, the appellant.
It. is difficult to tell from appellant’s brief exactly what the contentions are, as there is no statement of the case and the assignments are hot regularly made. The first contention seems to be that the court erred in refusing to grant a continuance. It is asserted that four days before the date set for the trial, the plaintiffs were permitted by the court
It is also contended that the court committed error in allowing respondents to exercise a fourth peremptory challenge. It seems that in impaneling the jury, one James Phillips, a juror, was called, who was challenged by the appellant for cause, and the challenge was sustained. After
“The action of the court in permitting to appellee a fifth peremptory challenge was erroneous, but the error is not reversible. The plaintiff, as has long been held in this state, had no vested right in any particular juror. He had a right to an impartial jury, and this right seems to have been enjoyed by him.”
It has frequently been decided by this court that litigants had no vested right in any particular juror, and in passing upon the laws in relation to the selection of jurors it was said, in State v. Straub, 16 Wash. 111, 47 Pac. 227:
“This court has held so many times, that it seems that we ought not to be called upon to further discuss this character of questions, that these conditions in regard to the selection of jurors are directory, and that no litigant has a vested right in the procedure. Certainly, in the absence of a showing that a material interest had been affected, the judgment would not be reversed for an irregularity so far as the procedure is concerned.”
An examination of the record leads us to conclude that no prejudicial error was committed by the court in the admission or rejection of testimony, or in the giving of instructions.
The judgment is affirmed.
Mount, C. J., Root, Crow, and Hadley, JJ., concur.