Dees v. L. F. Largess Co.

• Decision Date: 20 September 1965
• Docket Number: Nos. 54,No. 1,55,s. 54,1
• Citation: 136 N.W.2d 715,1 Mich.App. 421
• Parties: Earnest DEES and Elfrieda Dees, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. L. F. LARGESS COMPANY, a Michigan corporation, W. W. White Company, a Michigan corporation, Detroit Edison Company, a New York corporation, Detroit Coil Company, a Michigan corporation, Arrow Steel Company, a Michigan corporation, Vernon William Cleverdon, Alice Jencks and Joseph Kenneth Cleverdon, jointly and severally, Defendants-Appellants. Cal
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

Page 715

136 N.W.2d 715

1 Mich.App. 421

Earnest DEES and Elfrieda Dees, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. L. F. LARGESS COMPANY, a Michigan corporation, W. W. White Company, a Michigan corporation, Detroit Edison Company, a New York corporation, Detroit Coil Company, a Michigan corporation, Arrow Steel Company, a Michigan corporation Vernon William Cleverdon, Alice Jencks and Joseph Kenneth Cleverdon, jointly and severally, Defendants-Appellants.

Cal. Nos. 54, 55.

Court of Appeals of Michigan, Division No. 1.

Sept. 20, 1965.

Appeal from Wayne County Circuit Court, Wayne County; Horace W. Gilmore, Judge.

Robert, S. Ernstein, Berger, Manason, Kayes & Ernstein, Detroit, for appellant.

Cary, BeGole & Martin, by Lawrence A. Bohall, Detroit, for L. F. Largess Co.

Fischer, Sprague, Franklin & Ford, by David G. Barnett, Detroit, for Detroit Edison.

Ward, Plunkett, Cooney, Rutt & Peacock, Detroit, for W. W. White Co., Detroit Coil Co., Arrow Steel Co., Vernon

Williams Cleverdon, Alice Jencks, Joseph Jencks and Kenneth Cleverdon.

Before LESINSKI, C. J., and BURNS and WATTS, JJ.

BURNS, Judge.

The plaintiffs, Earnest and Elfrieda Dees, instituted suit against the individual and corporate defendants seeking damages for injuries Dees sustained when a crane which he was working about came in contact with a power transmission line carrying 24,000 volts of electricity.

Early in 1958, the defendant L. F. Largess Company, as general contractor, entered into a contract with the defendant Detroit Coil Company for the construction of an addition to existing facilities of Detroit Coil on Hilton road in the city of Ferndale. The Largess Company thereupon contracted with the defendant Arrow Steel Company to supply the required steel, and the Arrow Company, in turn, hired the Argo Steel Company, the plaintiff-appellant's employer, to erect the steel.

The individual defendants, Cleverdon, Jencks and Cleverdon are owners of real estate upon which the construction took place, and were lessors to the Detroit Coil Company.

The defendant Detroit Edison Company owned and operated overhead power transmission lines across the Wayne-Oakland county border, and along Hilton road. The particular lines in question ran on the westerly side of Hilton road along the frontage of the Detroit Coil Company. The transmission lines were copper wire of several strands without a dielectric covering, elevated to a height of approximately 37 feet and carried 24,000 volts of electricity.

On the day of the accident, June 12, 1958, Argo's crew went to work putting steel joists into place. Plaintiff Dees was a hook-up man on the ground, with the duty to hook the end of the 'choker' through the steel joists lying upon the bed of the trailer truck which brought the steel to the construction site. Part of the bed of the trailer was beneath the overhead Edison lines. The boom of the crane with jib attached to it was about 55 feet in length. Somehow, while one of the joists was about to be lifted into position from the traile truck, the whipline (the cable attached to the crane) came into contact with the Edison lines, thus transmitting electricity to the steel rim of the trailer bed which plaintiff was leaning against and the 'choker' which plaintiff had in his hand, severely injuring him, and then, upon termination of the electrical contact, throwing Dees to the pavement.

The trial court, after hearing testimony in regard to liability and determining no negligence on the part of the defendants, granted defendants' motion for a directed verdict, and on March 3, 1964, judgment of no cause of action was entered. From these orders the plaintiffs have appealed.

The plaintiff-appellants lay before this Court the question of the propriety of the trial court's action in directing a verdict of no cause of action in favor of the defendants Vernon William Cleverdon, Alice Jencks and Joseph Kenneth Cleverdon, individual defendants; Detroit Coil Company, a Michigan corporation; L. F. Largess Company, a Michigan corporation; and Detroit Edison Company, a New Yrok corporation. As to the other two defendants named in the record, W. W. White Company, a Michigan corporation, and Arrow Steel Company, a Michigan corporation, no question is raised as to the directed verdict in their favor.

The law of this state binds this Court to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Humenik v. Sternberg (1963), 371 Mich. 667, 124 N.W.2d 778. Reviewing the record, we find no evidence therein that would warrant presenting to a trier of facts the question of the defendants' negligence.

The responsibility of the defendant L. F. Largess Company is the responsibility of a general contractor for the injuries suffered by an employee of a subcontractor.

The record discloses that the steel erection was contracted to plaintiff's employer, a specialty firm in steel erection. A day prior to the performance of the work, the site was examined and the conditions reviewed, including the presence of overhead wires and all conditions of which plaintiff complains.

The trial court did not err in directing a judgment...