Court Opinion

ID: 9545361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:10:31.586086+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:33.907135
License: Public Domain

Utter, J.
(dissenting)—The pivotal issue in this case was whether a truck driver who admittedly did not know the height of his load but had "eyeballed it" at "not more than 10 foot" when in fact it exceeded the clearly marked low clearance warning of 12 feet is, as a matter of law, the sole proximate cause of the damage to his load. The majority recognizes that when the operative facts are undisputed and the inferences therefrom are plain and not subject to reasonable doubt or differences of opinion, the question of proximate cause becomes a question of law, rather than a question of fact. Litts v. Pierce County, 9 Wn. App. 843, 515 P.2d 526 (1973). It attempts to distinguish the holding of that case by stating the failure of the City to take measures to nonetheless warn the driver of the fact that his load was too high was a duty imposed on the City because the driver's negligence was a foreseeable intervening cause.
I cannot agree. The undisputed facts in this case show the warning sign correctly stating the height of the overpass *454was observed by the driver in sufficient time to stop and that he continued on only because he had incorrectly guessed the height of his load. As a matter of law this court should hold no duty is imposed on the City under the facts of this case where the sole proximate cause of the accident was the driver's failure to accurately ascertain the height of his load.
Stafford, Brachtenbach, and Horowitz, JJ., concur with Utter, J.
Petition for rehearing denied March 28, 1978.