Keller

This is an application for a writ of mandate to compel the respondent clerk to enter a judgment in favor of the petitioners in an action brought in the Superior Court of Kern County by one Laura A. Hamilton, as plaintiff, against J. L. Dykes and these petitioners, as defendants. The action was one to recover for damages sustained by the plaintiff in a collision between an automobile in which she was a passenger and driven by Dykes and another automobile alleged to have been driven by these petitioners, Dykes being charged with wilful misconduct and these petitioners with negligence. The jury was instructed that it might find in favor of all of the defendants, or that it might find in favor of the plaintiff as. against all of the defendants, or as against Dykes alone, or as against the Kellers or either of them, in accordance with its finding as to the truth of certain facts, respectively. The court submitted to the jury a blank form containing several forms of verdict which, except for the words and figures here inclosed in parentheses, reads as follows:

The jury inserted the figures ‘ ‘ $3800.00 ’ ’ in the third suggested verdict on this form and the same was signed by the…