Chambers v. Buettner

Decision Date13 November 1975
Citation321 So.2d 650,295 Ala. 8
PartiesLou Ella CHAMBERS, as Administratrix of the Estate of Terry Chambers, Deceased v. Emil BUETTNER et al. SC 1161.
CourtAlabama Supreme Court

Stephen K. Griffith and J. David Knight, Cullman, William W. Smith, Birmingham, for appellant.

Ralph Bland, and Finis E. St. John, Cullman, Clarence L. McDorman, Jr., Birmingham, for appellees.

EMBRY, Justice.

Appeal from judgment on directed verdict in favor of defendants in a wrongful death action arising out of a fire allegedly caused by a faulty electrical system. Motion for a directed verdict was granted at the close of plaintiff's case.

Plaintiff/appellant is Lou Ella Chambers, administratrix of the estate of Terry Chambers. Defendants/appellees are Alene T. Buettner, administratrix of the estate of Emil Buettner, 1 also d/b/a Buettner's Paint and Hardware Company, and the Utility Board of the City of Cullman (The Cullman Power Board).

There are three issues for decision: (1) Did Chambers offer a scintilla of evidence upon which reasonable men could differ which would support her cause of action against either the Cullman Power Board or Buettner? (2) Did the trial judge commit prejudicial error in refusing to allow Chamber's expert witness to testify as to what sections of the National Electric Code was violated by the defendant's electrical system? (3) Did the trial judge abuse his discretion in refusing to allow Chambers to recall a witness?

On Saturday, 15 July 1973, Terry Chambers visited the apartment of Wallace Logan and James Holmes, tenants of Buettner. The apartment was located over Buettner's Paint and Hardware Store. Emil Buettner was the owner and landlord. Terry Chambers and others who were at the apartment were listening to music and drinking beer. Sometime during the evening Chambers fell asleep on a couch in the living room of the apartment. During the early morning hours of Sunday a fire started in the building and spread to the apartment. When the fire was extinguished, Terry Chambers' body was discovered under a bed in the apartment bedroom.

In an amended complaint, 2 plaintiff alleged that Emil Buettner was under a duty to rent the apartment in a reasonably safe condition for the protection of persons who were invited to come to the apartment. It further alleged Buettner violated this duty by negligently renting the premises in an unsafe or defective condition. The complaint also alleged the Cullman Power Board violated a duty to members of the public who would rightfully be upon the property by negligently furnishing electrical power service to the apartment when the apartment electrical system was unfit to receive such service.

The tendencies of the evidence showed: the fire originated in an electrical conduit which ran from meter boxes on the outside of the building to a fuse panel box in the upstairs hallway of the building; that box served a meeting hall which Buettner rented to a labor union; precise point of origin of the fire was in the conduit several inches below the fuse box; the insulation on the wires inside the conduit box broke down; this caused electricity to arc from th wire to the conduit; the intense heat generated by this arcing melted a hole in the conduit and caused the plywood wall behind the conduit to ignite. 3 There was some evidence that the outside meter boxes, the conduit, and the fuse panel box were improperly grounded. Such an improper grounding would allow arcing to continue instead of overloading the circuit and blow the fuses to shut off electrical power.

Further tendencies of the evidence were: the meter box on the outside of the building in which the apartment was located was improperly grounded; the supplier of electricity (Cullman Power Board) connects service at this box; visual inspection of the outside meter box and the electrical conduits originating from that box and entering the building should have indicated to the serviceman that the system as a whole was defective, therefore Chambers asserts that the Cullman Power Board knew or Should have known that the system was defective, and power should not have been supplied to the building.

The Directed Verdict For The Cullman Power Board

Chambers claims the Power Board committed actionable negligence in supplying electricity to a defective electrical system. The duty of a supplier of electricity to premises wholly owned and controlled by the recipient of service is well settled. A supplier who merely furnishes electricity is not responsible for defects in the system to which electricity is supplied. It is under no duty to inspect the system to which electricity is supplied. The duty of the supplier ends when the connection is properly made, when the supplier has no control over the premises, and the supplier is without Actual knowledge of any defective or dangerous condition. City of Decatur v. Parham, 268 Ala. 585, 109 So.2d 692 (1959). See also Chilton Butane Gas, Inc. v. Marcus, 289 Ala. 292, 267 So.2d 140 (1972).

'Until notice is Brought home to the generating company that the distribution system of its customer is out of repair, so as to endanger life or property, the * * * (supplier) has the right, reasonably and justly so, to assume that the * * * (customer) will maintain proper equipment to receive and distribute the current. (citation omitted)' (emphasis added) Johnson v. Alabama Power Co., 230 Ala. 91, 94, 159 So. 695, 698 (1935) If, on the other hand, the supplier of electricity also undertakes to install wiring, parts of the wiring system, or electrical appliances it is responsible for Constructive knowledge of defects or insufficiences which present potential hazards. Alabama Power Co. v. Emens, 228 Ala. 466, 153 So. 729 (1934). Under the facts, disclosed by the evidence, in this case the Power Board could be liable only if it had actual knowledge of any defects in the electrical system to which it supplied electricity. The evidence was that the serviceman of Cullman Power Board who made the service connection to the meter box of the Buettner premises observed the box to be grounded. He was under no duty, under the evidence in this case, to further inspect as to the sufficiency of the grounding.

Careful review of the evidence, viewed most favorably to plaintiff Chambers, fails to turn up a Scintilla to the effect that any agent of the Power Board had actual knowledge of any defect or insufficiency in the Buettner premises electrical system. Directing verdict for the Power Board was without error.

The Directed Verdict For Alene Buettner

Chamber's complaint alleged Buettner had a duty to rent the premises in a reasonably safe condition for the protection of members of the public invited on the premises by the tenant; that Buettner negligently violated this duty owed to Terry Chambers who was visiting Buettner's tenants on the night of the fire.

The general rule of law with respect to guests of tenants is well settled. The landlord, in the absence of a covenant to repair, is liable only for latent defects, known to him at the time of the leasing, and which are concealed...

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18 cases
  • Osborn v. Brown
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • July 21, 1978
    ...liable only for latent defects of which he knows at the time the lease is made and which he conceals from the tenant. Chambers v. Buettner, 295 Ala. 8, 321 So.2d 650 (1975). However, appellees' able and resourceful counsel advance five theories to support recovery which are said to take thi......
  • Wallace v. The Hous. Auth. of the City of Talladega
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Civil Appeals
    • April 14, 2023
    ... ... only for latent defects, known to him at the time of the ... leasing, and which are concealed from the tenant." ... Chambers v. Buettner , 295 Ala. 8, 12, 321 So.2d 650, ... 653 (1975); see , e.g. , Faucett v ... Provident Mut. Life Ins. Co. of Philadelphia, ... ...
  • Cohran v. Boothby Realty Co.
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • January 11, 1980
    ...known to the landlord at the time of the leasing, and which were concealed from the tenant. See, e. g., Bevis, supra; Chambers v. Buettner, 295 Ala. 8, 321 So.2d 650 (1975). The Anderson case clearly explains that the existence of the language, "absent a covenant to repair," originated in t......
  • Hilliard v. City of Huntsville Elec. Utility Bd.
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • May 22, 1992
    ...its actions had not caused the fire. Also, the Utility Board claimed that it owed no duty to the Hilliards, citing Chambers v. Buettner, 295 Ala. 8, 321 So.2d 650 (1975). Additionally, the Board claimed substantive, municipal immunity as a bar to Hilliard's recovery. To rebut the Utility Bo......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

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