Graves

This is an action in which the plaintiffs seek to recover damages for the death of their son, caused by a motor vehicle accident. The accident occurred in the city of Bakersfield, in a subway under the Santa Fe Railroad tracks, on Union Avenue, a paved street which runs north and south. The bottom of the subway is flat for eighty feet, and the ascent on either side is 300 feet long from the level of the bottom to the street level above, the grade on these ascents being about five per cent. At a point on the east side of the north incline, about 100 feet up the slope from the beginning of the ascent and twelve feet east of the east edge of the pavement, on the night here in question, there was a hole about four feet long, north and south, three feet wide and one and one-half feet deep. The twelve feet from the pavement to this hole was a gradual rise and from the hole on, the slope of the bank sharply ascended to the ground level. The hole was, in fact, one in the bank, having been made by the water washing part of the bank away at that point. This accident occurred about 8 o’clock in the evening of September 8, 1929, while the pavement was wet from a recent rain. One Walter L.…