In re Skidmore Estate
| Citation | 889 N.W.2d 765,315 Mich.App. 470 |
| Decision Date | 24 May 2016 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 323757. |
| Parties | In re SKIDMORE ESTATE (On Reconsideration). |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Mark Granzotto, PC, Royal Oak (by Mark Granzotto), and Kline & Specter, PC (by Shanin Specter and Charles L. Becker ), for Ralph Skidmore, Jr.
Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge, Grand Rapids (by John R. Oostema, E. Thomas McCarthy, Jr., and D. Adam Tountas) and Jacobs and Diemer, PC, Detroit (by John P. Jacobs and Timothy A. Diemer ), for Consumers Energy Company.
Before: SHAPIRO, P.J., and O'CONNELL and BORRELLO, JJ.
Defendant, Consumers Energy Company, is an electrical utility and transmits high-power electricity over elevated wires. Shortly after dark, on July 19, 2011, one of Consumers' high-voltage power lines fell to the ground in a residential neighborhood. Catherine Skidmore (Cathy) was electrocuted when she came into contact with the fallen line. Plaintiff Ralph Skidmore, individually and as personal representative of his wife's estate, brought suit, alleging that the elevated power line fell due to a failure by Consumers to exercise reasonable care to maintain its lines and that Consumers' negligence was a proximate cause of his wife's death. Consumers filed a motion for summary disposition, asserting that it was not reasonably foreseeable that Cathy would run to the house where the downed power line had fallen and that it therefore owed her no duty. The trial court agreed and granted summary disposition. We reversed and remanded. Both plaintiff and defendant timely filed motions for reconsideration asserting that our opinion required clarification, and we granted both motions. We again reverse and remand.
Cathy was electrocuted as she ran onto the side yard of her across-the-street neighbor, Roddy Cooper, and came in contact with a high-voltage wire that was on the ground. The incident occurred after dark.
Cooper's house sat on the corner of Shirley Avenue and Winnifred Street. Its front door and enclosed porch faced onto Shirley, and it had a long side yard fronting on Winnifred with several windows. The Skidmores lived on Winnifred, directly across the street from Cooper's side yard. At the end of the long side yard, where the backyard began, there was a driveway on which Cooper's red van was parked.
The lower court record contains portions of the deposition testimony of four eyewitnesses to the incident. Ralph Skidmore (Ralph), James Beam, and Don Stutzman viewed the events from outside Cooper's house, and Cooper viewed the events from inside his house. Each eyewitness testified that the evening of July 19, 2011, was warm and calm and that shortly after dark they heard a loud boom, following which the street lights in the area went out. Beam, Stutzman, and Ralph all observed sparks and light at the red van in Cooper's driveway. Concerned that the van might explode or set fire to Cooper's house, Beam, Stutzman, and Cathy each went to Cooper's house to warn him.
Beam testified that after hearing the boom, he stepped out onto his porch, at which point "I seen [sic] the sparks on top of the van which was flashing light." Stutzman was next to him, and together they ran to Cooper's house 1 He and Stutzman banged on the front door and front window and yelled to Cooper that there was a fire. While he was at the front of Cooper's house, Beam saw Cathy run across Winnifred Street going from her house to Cooper's side yard. As she entered Cooper's side yard, Beam yelled "[s]top," but Cathy did not turn in his direction, and he did not know if she heard him. He then heard a "loud pop," and "[s]he dropped to the ground and burst in[to] flames." Cathy's husband, Ralph, came running over with a fire extinguisher, which Stutzman took from him and used to try to put out the flames.
On cross-examination by plaintiff's counsel, Beam was asked whether he had seen the power line in the grass before Cathy came into contact with it. He testified as follows:
Stutzman testified that he heard a loud pop and went outside with Beam to see what was going on. He testified that he could see sparks in two places, at the transformer at the top of the utility pole at Shirley and Winnifred and by Cooper's van in the driveway on Winnifred. Although he could not see the rest of the line, he concluded that it was somewhere along the side of Cooper's house. When he saw Cathy "fast walk[ing]" into the side yard, he yelled for her to stop, but could not tell if she heard him over the noise. He testified:
Stutzman also testified that until Cathy went down and caught fire, there had been no fire in the yard and that the area had been dark. When asked to further describe the visibility of the wire, he stated that it was dark and that the line was "black-grey." He stated that He explained:
After Cathy fell to the ground and caught fire, Ralph approached with a fire extinguisher. Stutzman took it from him, went to Cathy, and sprayed her with it.
According to Cooper, the power line that broke runs above the southeastern corner of his house. Cooper heard a loud boom, followed by a brilliant flash and a buzzing sound. He looked out his back door and saw flames and a wire on the ground next to his van, and he saw the wire sliding toward a bush. He realized a power line had come down, so he called 911. While he was speaking with the 911 operator, he heard several people (apparently Beam and Stutzman) knocking at his front door. He heard various people yelling "fire." He stood at his dining room window, which is about halfway along the side of the house. He could see across the street to the Skidmore house. He saw Cathy, who lived across the street, come out onto her side porch and call out, As he looked from the dining room window to the rear of the house (his left as he stood looking out the dining room window), he saw sparks and flames by the van. To his right, along the side yard, there were no flames or sparks. Nor were there any by the kitchen windows that were between the dining room and the driveway.
Cooper was asked whether there was any reason that Cathy would have had trouble "see[ing] a power line down when she ran across from her house to go warn you at your house?" He answered that He stated that the line was sparking and arcing by the back door next to the van,
Ralph testified that as he was getting into bed that evening at about 10:00 p.m., the lights flickered briefly. A few minutes later, Cathy, who was in the front room of the house where the window provided a view of Cooper's house across the street, called out that Cooper's van was on fire and that she was afraid it would explode. Ralph came to the front room, looked out the window with Cathy, and saw that They saw "sparks" and "bright flashes of light" on the side of the van facing toward the rear of the Cooper house. He heard sounds that "sounded like somebody was welding." Ralph stated, He agreed that he thought a power line had likely fallen.
According to Ralph, Cathy made no statements to him other than that she thought the van was on fire and that they needed to get Cooper out of his house. She said she thought the van might explode, and she ran out of the house to warn him. Ralph followed her outside and saw her run towards Cooper's dining room windows, inside of which he could see Cooper standing. He then saw her fall and catch fire.
Cathy died from her injuries.
According to Ralph, the power lines in the neighborhood had been a problem for about 25 years, and the power would go out two or three...
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