Keefe v. Narragansett Elec. Lighting Co.

• Decision Date: 22 June 1898
• Citation: 21 R.I. 575,43 A. 542
• Parties: KEEFE v. NARRAGANSETT ELECTRIC LIGHTING CO.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

43 A. 542

21 R.I. 575

KEEFE

v. NARRAGANSETT ELECTRIC LIGHTING CO.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

June 22, 1898.

Action in trespass on the case by Agnes Keefe, by next friend, against the Narragansett Electric Lighting Company, for injuries received from an electric wire. Heard on plaintiff's petition for a new trial after a verdict was directed for defendant. Denied.

Charles H. Page and Charles H. Page, Jr., for plaintiff.

Frank S. Arnold, for defendant.

PER CURIAM. We think that the verdict for defendant was properly directed. The testimony shows that the plaintiff, a girl about 11 years of age, climbed out of the window of the house in which she lived onto the jet of the adjoining house, and, while walking along the jet of the latter house, came in contact with certain electric wires owned by the tenant of that building, which were connected with the defendant's wires, and she thereby received the injury for which the suit was brought. We do not think that the action can be maintained: First, because the wires by which the plaintiff was injured were not the wires of the defendant; and, secondly, even if they had been, we fail to see that the defendant would have owed any duty to the plaintiff, since it could have had no reason to anticipate the act of the plaintiff in walking along the jet. New trial denied, and case remitted to the common pleas division with direction to enter judgment for the defendant for costs.