Leaksville Light & Power Co. v. Georgia Cas. Co.

• Decision Date: 19 November 1924
• Docket Number: 355.
• Citation: 125 S.E. 123,188 N.C. 597
• Parties: LEAKSVILLE LIGHT & POWER CO. v. GEORGIA CASUALTY CO.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

125 S.E. 123

188 N.C. 597

LEAKSVILLE LIGHT & POWER CO. v. GEORGIA CASUALTY CO.

No. 355.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

November 19, 1924

Appeal from Superior Court, Rockingham County; Shaw, Judge.

Action by the Leaksville Light & Power Company against the Georgia Casualty Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

It appears that plaintiff is a corporation, duly chartered under the laws of North Carolina, with the principal office at Leaksville in said state, and as such is engaged in maintaining and operating an electric light and power company, furnishing current and power to the communities of Leaksville, Spray, Draper, and vicinity; that the action is to recover of defendant on an insurance policy, agreeing to indemnify plaintiff to amount of $5,000 against loss resulting from claims for damages on account of bodily injuries suffered during the life to the policy, including death resulting at any time from such injuries by any person or persons not employees of the assured, by reason of the operation of the work of the assured described in an annex schedule, etc.

It appears that one John T. Robertson, not an employee of plaintiff, while traveling on the highway in said county was severely injured by the negligent operation of an automobile truck of plaintiff, while being driven along the highway in the county, loaded with poles, to be used at some point and in some way in the plaintiff's work. That said Robertson made claim for $20,000, and plaintiff settled same for $5,000, which is agreed to be a fair adjustment of the matter.

Some of the relevant facts attendant upon the injury and present claim therefor are stated in the case agreed as follows:

"That the estimated compensation of employees upon which the said policy was based and premium paid included linemen as employees in charge of the defendant's business; that the plaintiff had no regular automobile drivers, but the linemen and other employees of the company drove its service car from time to time, and that said employees in charge of the service car at the time of the injury complained of were carrying a load of poles in an automobile truck from Leaksville to Spray, along the highway, for the purpose of repairing a portion of plaintiff's transmission lines, and, while so driving along the highway, negligently permitted certain material so being handled, to wit, an electric light pole, to violently strike the said John T. Robertson, who was coming along the highway from the opposite direction, and to inflict upon him serious bodily injury; that the electric light pole which did the injury was loaded upon the service car which was being driven by the said employees. That it is agreed that, if the court shall be of opinion that the plaintiff is entitled to recover upon the foregoing admitted facts, the court shall enter judgment for the plaintiff in the sum of $5,000 and the costs, and that, if the court shall be of opinion from the foregoing admitted facts that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover, the court shall enter judgment that the plaintiff recover nothing and pay the

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