FORMAL OPINION 1
Prosecuting Attorney
(1950)

Your communication requesting an opinion as to the propriety of your accepting employment to represent a railroad company in defending a civil suit for damages brought against such railroad company by a freight truck driver, whom you, as prosecuting attorney, prosecuted for negligent driving in connection with the same accident out of which his alleged civil action against the railroad company arises, has been referred to the Committee on Legal Ethics of the Association.

The Committee is of the opinion that you are precluded from accepting employment in such civil cause of action by virtue of Section 4138 of Remington's Revised Statutes of the State of Washington [RCW 36.26.050, and the construction placed by the Supreme Court on Section 4138 in the case of Callahan v. Jones, 200 Wash. 241. On page 249 of such reported case, the Supreme Court in regard to such statute states:

"The legislative intent to entirely separate the official duties of prosecuting attorneys from any private gain clearly appears, and this legislative policy is so clearly in the public interest that the statute should not be restricted by judicial interpretation, but should be so construed as to accomplish to the full its beneficent purpose."