Robert I. Sketo and Mildred B. Sketo, Husband and Wife v. Olympic Ferries, Inc., a Washington Corporation

Olympic Ferries appeals from a judgment against it for $16,606.03 aris ing out of a wrongful death action brought by the Sketos for the death of their miiior son, Stanley. District court jurisdiction was based upon diversity of citizenship. Washington law applies. The sole contention of the appellant is that there was insufficient evidence to establish that its admitted negligence was the proximate cause of death. We affirm.

In the summer of 1967 the decedent and his parents were on a vacation trip through the Pacific Northwest in their pickup camper. Stanley, age 15, was a severe hemophiliac with a lengthy history of traumatieally induced internal bleeding.

Having journeyed from southern California to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, the Sketos boarded appellant’s ferry at Port Townsend on August 15, 1967, bound for Keystone. Mr. Sketo walked aboard while Mrs. Sketo and Stanley parked the camper on the car deck.

The lower level of the ferry included the car deck, surrounded by a platform or landing. The platform and car deck were constructed of wood planking with the surface of the platform about sy2 inches above the surface of the car deck. The platform and car deck had…