Alabama Power Co. v. Sides, 6 Div. 580.
| Decision Date | 21 June 1934 |
| Docket Number | 6 Div. 580. |
| Citation | 229 Ala. 84,155 So. 686 |
| Parties | ALABAMA POWER CO. v. SIDES. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Walker County; Ernest Lacy, Judge.
Action for damages by Forrest Sides against the Alabama Power Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.
Reversed and remanded.
Arthur Fite, of Jasper, and Martin, Turner & McWhorter, of Birmingham, for appellant.
Davis & Curtis, of Jasper, for appellee.
This is an action against appellant, a distributer of electricity to the public, for damages for discontinuing electric service.
Appellant contended that it was justified in so doing because of the dangerous condition of plaintiff's wires which received the service.
It is not disputed that the law exacts of defendant a high degree of responsibility when its customer has a defective condition rendering service by defendant dangerous, and that danger is known to defendant. Alabama Power Co. v. Jones, 212 Ala. 206, 101 So. 898; Alabama Power Co. v. Curry (Ala Sup.) 153 So. 634.
The court submitted to the jury the question of whether plaintiff's wiring was dangerous. In this, we think it erred, and should have given the affirmative charge for defendant.
The situation was that plaintiff had been using electric service in another house as he built the one in question, and as the latter was finished the former was torn away, but leaving the posts of the old house standing on which the meter and switch were fastened. They stood some ten feet from the new house. Plaintiff extended a wire from it across his lot and porch into his house through the door opening. He used what is termed an inside drop, twisted, wire cord. The house had no wiring system, but this long cord was moved around in the house with a bulb on the end for lights, and where such service might be needed.
This drop wire cord was shown to be unsuitable for outside use was liable to leak and cause injury to persons coming in contact with it, and to set the house afire. The evidence shows that it was not stretched tightly and fastened so as not to sag, but extended loosely through a staple, and did sag more or less. This continued for, to wit, six months.
Defendant's witnesses all testified that it was dangerous, and there was none to the contrary. Defendant's employees remonstrated time and again, and plaintiff promised to remedy the condition. Finally a formal notice was given that if not remedied, service would be discontinued. This was done after plaintiff failed to take any steps in...
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