Capital Gas & Electric Light Co. v. Davis. Adm'R.
| Decision Date | 08 June 1910 |
| Citation | 138 Ky. 628 |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Capital Gas & Electric Light Co. v. Davis' Admr. |
Appeal from Franklin Circuit Court.
Judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. — Reversed.
T. L. EDELEN and B. G. WILLIAMS for appellant.
SCOTT & HAMILTON, W. C. MARSHALL and R. B. FRANKLIN for appellee.
The appellee's intestate, William Davis, a convict confined in the state penitentiary at Frankfort, lost his life January 13, 1906, from contact with a wire charged with electricity belonging to the Postal Telegraph & Cable Company, which had burned out where it entered a call box at the penitentiary, and by reason thereof fallen to the ground within the walls of that institution. The Postal Telegraph & Cable Company and the appellant, Capital Gas & Electric Company, have on Main street in the city of Frankfort each a wire attached to the same pole located near the Frankfort Hotel. The wire of the Postal Telegraph & Cable Company had been allowed to become loose and so remain until it swung in contact with the wire of the Capital Gas & Electric Light Company which so overcharged with electricity the wire of the Postal Telegraph & Cable Company leading into the penitentiary as to cause it to burn out where it connected with the call box of that institution. The severed wire which fell to the ground, being heavily charged with electricity, sputtered and flashed to such an extent as to make it very dangerous to persons passing, and its condition at once known to the penitentiary guards and others present. At this juncture one of the guards called appellee's intestate, who was an electrical expert and then in charge of the penitentiary electric plant, to ascertain the cause of the dangerous condition of the fallen wire and to remedy it. The latter temporarily relieved the situation by removing the wire from the ground, and placing it upon a truck out of the way of persons passing. This he did by using his woolen cap as a means of protection, holding it in his hand while he took hold of the live wire and placed it upon the trestle. But in doing so he was violently shocked, and his cap burned by the contact. Others present when this was done testified that the electric current in the wire was so strong that they felt its effect without contact. As the day was a wet and cloudy one, the electric lights of the penitentiary had been turned on and were then in use. After placing the wire upon the truck, the intestate, who believed it had been charged by contact somewhere with a wire of the penitentiary electric works, left it to turn off the current from the prison lights of which he was in charge. Whether he performed this supposed duty does not appear, but, if he did so, it is evident it did not relieve the wire in question of the electric current, and further evident that he soon returned to the wire, for in a few minutes after he left it to turn off the penitentiary current his dead body was found at the foot of the truck with the live wire grasped in his hand, and lying near him on the ground was the woolen cap, which, like his hand, was in a badly burned condition from contact with the wire.
Shortly after the death of Davis, this action was brought by the administrator of his estate to recover of appellant damages therefor; it being, in substance, alleged in the petition that it was caused by the negligence of appellant in suffering its wire to be and remain in contact with that of the Postal Telegraph & Cable Company at the pole on Main street in their joint use, by which the wire of the latter connecting with the call box in the penitentiary was so overcharged with electricity from appellant's wire as to cause it to burn out at the call box and fall to the ground within the walls of the penitentiary, thereby creating the danger in the attempt to remove which the intestate lost his life. The answer of appellant specifically denied the act of negligence charged in the petition, and pleaded contributory negligence on the part of the intestate, but for which, it was alleged, he would not have lost his life. Appellee by reply denied the contributory negligence alleged in the answer, and the trial resulted in a verdict in favor of appellee for $6,000. Reversal of the judgment entered upon the verdict is asked upon various grounds, but appellant's main contention is that the intestate's death was caused by his own negligence, and that, this fact being established by the evidence, the trial court erred in refusing the peremptory instruction asked by it. This contention we must sustain because it is supported by the record; in other words, the contributory negligence of the intestate was established by the undisputed facts presented by the evidence. Therefore the court should, as a matter of law, have so decided and peremptorily instructed the jury to find for appellant.
We admit the contention of appellee's able counsel that the weight of authority is to the effect that handlers of the mysterious and deadly agency known as electricity are practically insurers against danger to persons who may come in contact with their wires, but, while this is true, it is also a well-recognized rule that one who voluntarily puts himself in contact with a live wire knowing it to be charged with the deadly current must be held to be guilty of negligence. And this would be true of any adult, though he were wholly unskilled in the handling of...
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Kentucky Utilities Co. v. Black's Adm'x
... ... yard. There was a flash of light and a sharp sound. In a ... moment Black was found on his ... About two years after it was put up the electric ... wire was strung three or four feet beneath the aerial ... such, as in the cases of Capital Gas & Electric Company ... v. Davis' Adm'r, 138 Ky. 628, ... ...