Clonts v. Laclede Gaslight Co.

• Decision Date: 06 June 1910
• Parties: CLONTS et al. v. LACLEDE GASLIGHT CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

129 S.W. 238

144 Mo. App. 582

CLONTS et al. v. LACLEDE GASLIGHT CO.

Springfield Court of Appeals. Missouri.

June 6, 1910.

1. MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 119)—"REASONABLE CARE"—WHAT CONSTITUTES—ELECTRICAL APPARATUS.

Reasonable care which a master is required to exercise to guard against injuries to a servant by the use of electricity is nothing short of the utmost effort to use every protection which is reasonably accessible to insulate its wires and to keep them insulated.

2. MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 97)—DEATH OF SERVANT—ELECTRICITY—NEGLIGENCE — ANTICIPATION OF DANGERS.

Defendant maintained an elevator in its building operated by electricity furnished by a low tension wire maintained through the streets of the city. At a point four or five miles from defendant's building, this wire was crossed underneath at a distance of about 18 inches by a high voltage wire of the U. Company, carrying an alternating current. Both wires were properly insulated. At the time decedent was killed while operating the elevator, the employés of the U. Company, while making certain repairs, placed a strain on a pole at the point of crossing, and, suddenly pulling it back, a guy wire was tightened in such a manner as to raise the high tension wire until it came in contact with defendant's wire, instantaneously burning the insulation off of both and charging defendant's wire with a current of from 2,000 to 2,300 volts, which passed into the tiller rope of the elevator and thence into decedent's body, causing his instantaneous death. It was proved that there was no insulation that would resist such a contact, and that electric elevators were not intended to be used with a current higher than 500 volts. Held, that defendant was not required to anticipate that such an accident might happen.

3. DEATH (§ 57)—ISSUES AND PROOF.

Where, in an action for death, plaintiff based his right to recover on specific acts of negligence, he could only recover on proof of the specific acts alleged.

4. MASTER AND SERVANT (§§ 101, 102)—DEATH OF SERVANT—LIABILITY OF MASTER— MASTER AS INSURER.

A master is not an insurer of the lives of his servants operating an electric elevator so as to render him liable for the death of a servant caused by the charging of the electric wires with a high voltage current of electricity, due to contact with other wires, without negligence on the part of the master or its servants.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Chas. Claflin Allen, Judge.

Action by Beulah Clonts and another against the Laclede Gaslight Company. Judgment for plaintiffs, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

Percy Werner, for appellant. E. C. Crow, Guy E. Golterman, and Jeffries & Corum, for respondents.

NIXON, P. J.

This was an action brought by the minor children of S. C. Clouts for damages for his death while employed by the appellant in operating an electric elevator. Judgment in the trial court was for respondents in the sum of $5,000, and the case is here on defendant's appeal.

The appellant company maintained a building at the corner of Convent and Second streets in the city of St. Louis known as "Station A." It was used for generating and storing fuel and illuminating gas. This building was equipped with an electric elevator. Clonts, the deceased, was in the employ of the appellant as a laborer at this building, and it was a part of his duty to use the electric elevator in conveying materials from different parts of the building. In order to operate the elevator, it was necessary to grasp with the hand an uninsulated iron tiller rope which constituted a part of the equipment of the elevator. The motive power was, of course, electricity, and was supplied by one of defendant's wires carrying a 500 voltage which was a direct current generated in the same building, and not an alternating current. This 500-volt circuit was the only electric wire that ran into Station A.

On the morning of the 6th of September, 1905, at 11:15 o'clock, while the said Clonts was in the line of his duty operating this elevator by grasping the iron tiller rope with his hand, he received from such wire rope into his body a powerful current of electricity which caused his instant death. At that date, the Union Electric Light & Power Company of St. Louis, another corporation, maintained poles and wires at the corner of Finney and Taylor avenues in the city of St. Louis, some four or five miles from where deceased was killed. The Union Company's wires carried a voltage of 2,300 and with an alternating current. The 500-volt wire which operated the elevator at Station A also extended to the crossing of Finney and Taylor avenues. The poles and wires of the Union Company which carried the 2,300 voltage ran east and west along Finney avenue and across Taylor avenue. The 500-volt wire of the appellant was strung north and south along Taylor avenue, crossing above the high voltage wire of the Union Company. The wires of the Union Company were strung at a later date than that of the defendant, and, in order to avoid contact at the point of crossing, the wires of the Union Company were allowed by such company to sag some 15 or 18 inches below the said wire of the defendant. At the hour of Clonts' death, the employés of the Union Company were at work on the poles and wires of said company at the corner of Finney and Taylor avenues for some reason repairing the Union Company's line. By putting a strain on the pole at that point and suddenly pulling it back, a guy wire was tightened in such a manner as to raise the Union Company's high voltage wire until it came in contact with the wire of the defendant. The immediate effect of the contact of the two wires was to burn the insulation off of both and charge both wires with the same voltage. The high voltage of the Union Company's wire sought an outlet on the lighter wire of the defendant, ran instantaneously along that wire, and entered the building in which Clonts was operating the electric elevator, burning out the insulation in the elevator and running along the wire tiller rope by which the elevator was being operated by Clonts, so that Clonts, who had hold of the iron tiller rope, received the 2,000 or 2,300 volts of electricity, causing his instant death.

The evidence was unquestioned that the wire of the defendant at the crossing of Finney and Taylor avenues at the place where the contact took place was properly insulated. There was no evidence that there had ever been any trouble at that point by reason of the two wires coming in contact prior to the fatal accident. There is no evidence in this record to show that this defendant had any notice whatever or any knowledge that the work was to be carried on by the employés of the Union Company on their line at the point where the actual contact took place; nor is there any evidence to show that, if they had known the fact that said employés of said company were engaged on its line at said point, they could have anticipated that said employés would bring the wires of the two companies into contact. The evidence is that Clonts was killed at the electric elevator on September 6, 1905, at 11:15 o'clock. The automatic apparatus and indicator in the office of the Union Company and its records showed that notice was received at such office on that date at 11:13 a. m.; the indicator showing that the ground trouble was in the locality of Finney and Taylor avenues. The operator of the electric wire system of the defendant at Station A had his attention called to the unusual condition of its wire by an unusual flash of light caused by the high tension current on its line. This he observed and recorded the hour at the time, and it was 11:15 a. m. by his clock, the precise moment at which the evidence shows Clonts was killed. W. J. O'Brien testified that he was working for the defendant at Station A and remembered the accident. He said: "I made a report of the death of Clonts. It occurred at 11:15 a. m."

The evidence was conflicting as to whether the elevator which the deceased was operating was properly constructed and...