80 Wash. 628 | Wash. | 1914
The plaintiff seeks recovery of damages which he claims resulted to him from the breach, on the part of the defendants, of a covenant to repair the elevator in the Knickerbocker Hotel, in Seattle, which was leased to him by them. A trial before the court and a jury resulted in verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff, from which the defendants have appealed.
The principal contentions of counsel for appellants have to do with alleged misconduct of counsel for respondent in continuing to ask witness questions and making offers of proof touching items of loss, claimed by respondent, resulting from appellants’ breach of the covenant to repair,
“You are not to pay any attention or allow to have any weight with you any statement of counsel in offering evidence that the court excludes. You will try this case upon the evidence admitted in open court and not upon the offers or arguments.”
Similar observations were made by the court to the jury on other occasions, when ruling against counsel for respondent. The controversy has been apparently accompanied by considerable feeling between the- parties. This also seems to have been reflected to some extent by counsel for the respective parties during the trial of the case. If counsel for respondent are subject to any criticism of the nature sought to be made by counsel for appellants, we think it may be said, from the record as a whole, that counsel for appellants are also, in a measure, subject to the same criticism. We think, however, that whatever prejudice might have occurred of the nature complained of, it was capable of being, and was, in fact, cured by the court’s admonitions and instructions to the jury made from time to time during the trial.
In the beginning of the court’s instructions given to the
Other rulings of the trial court are complained of as erroneous. These claims of error, we think, are without merit and do not call for discussion. The verdict finds ample support in the evidence as to the breach of the covenant, damage flowing therefrom, and the amount thereof found by the jury. Indeed, counsel for appellant do not seem to be seeking a new trial upon the ground of the insufficiency of evidence. We think the cause does not call for further discussion.
The judgment is affirmed.
Crow, C. J., Fullerton, Mount, and Morris, JJ., concur.