Helms v. Citizens' Light & Power Co.
| Decision Date | 31 December 1926 |
| Docket Number | 425. |
| Parties | HELMS v. CITIZENS' LIGHT & POWER CO. et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Union County; Stack, Judge.
Civil action by Marshall A. Helms, administrator, against the Citizens' Light & Power Company and others for wrongful death of plaintiff's intestate. From a judgment for plaintiff against defendant Caldwell Power Company, it appeals. No error.
"Negligence" is want of due care.
Civil action to recover damages for the death of plaintiff's intestate, alleged to have been caused by the wrongful act neglect, or default of the defendant Caldwell Power Company in failing properly to guard one of its high-powered electrical transmission wires, or in negligently constructing the same over the telephone wires of the Lenoir Electric Company, in consequence of which the two wires, both being uninsulated, came in contact with each other and caused a deadly current of electricity to be transmitted from the defendant's highly charged wires over and along the telephone wire of the Lenoir Electric Company and into the body of plaintiff's intestate, causing instant death.
Upon denial of liability and issues joined, the jury returned the following verdict:
From a judgment on the verdict for plaintiff, the defendant Caldwell Power Company appeals, assigning errors.
W. C. Newland and Mark Squires, both of Lenoir, Gilliam Craig, of Monroe, and Plummer Stewart, of Charlotte, for appellant.
Vann & Milliken, of Monroe, for appellee.
Evidence was offered on the hearing in support of plaintiff's allegations of negligence, tending to show:
(1) That plaintiff's intestate was a lineman employed by H. R. Cook in the construction of, or in adding new wires to, a telephone line from Lenoir to Blowing Rock, belonging to the Lenoir Electric Company.
(2) That, while engaged in the performance of his duties as said lineman, plaintiff's intestate was killed by reason of the escape of a high voltage of electricity from the transmission line of the defendant Caldwell Power Company onto the telephone line of the Lenoir Electric Company, which instantly came in contact with the body of plaintiff's intestate, and thereby caused his death.
(3) That, at the place where plaintiff's intestate was killed, the power line crosses over the telephone line in a narrow valley, and on each side of this valley the hills rise sharply to an elevation which causes the telephone poles to reach practically to the same height as that of the power line, although the power line where it crosses the telephone line is some 8 or 10 feet above the pole to which the telephone wires are tied in the valley. But, if one of the telephone wires should break loose from the pole in the valley, it would be liable to, and in the instant case did, fly up and strike the transmission wire of the Caldwell Power Company. This telephone line had been in existence for 30 years or more, while the defendant's power line had only recently been constructed, and plaintiff's intestate was engaged in stringing new telephone wires across the valley and was about two poles away from the power line when he received the deadly shock.
(4) That no net or bridge or...
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