McAllister v. Pryor

• Decision Date: 31 May 1924
• Docket Number: 464.
• Citation: 123 S.E. 92,187 N.C. 832
• Parties: MCALLISTER v. PRYOR ET AL.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

123 S.E. 92

187 N.C. 832

MCALLISTER v. PRYOR ET AL.

No. 464.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

May 31, 1924

Appeal from Superior Court, Mecklenburg County; Harding, Judge.

Action by Harriett McAllister against George W. Pryor and others. From a judgment of nonsuit, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

In action for injuries against electric company, evidence that plaintiff, while using an electric iron for pressing purpose in a theater, received a severe electric shock, indicating the flow of an unnecessary and dangerous current of electricity into the theater was sufficient under doctrine of res ipsa loquitur to go to jury.

The plaintiff conceded in this court that on the evidence adduced in the court below there was no error in the judgment of nonsuit against Geo. W. Pryor and Virginia-Carolina Amusement Company. The only question that will be considered: Is there any sufficient evidence, as shown from the record, to go to the jury, as to the liability of the Southern Public Utilities Company.

The plaintiff contends that the defendant Virginia-Carolina Amusement Company was a corporation operating theaters and places of amusement in Virginia and North Carolina, and George W. Pryor was one of the owners and managers; that they were operating what is known as the "Piedmont Theatre" in the city of Charlotte. The plaintiff was an actress, and engaged as a performer, and it was her duty to press her aprons used as a part of her costume to be worn during the performance, and to press wardrobes. She was furnished with an electric iron for this purpose, and was injured as hereinafter stated.

The plaintiff alleges in the complaint:

"That the defendant Southern Public Utilities Company was negligent, which negligence was the proximate cause of the injury to the plaintiff, in that it failed to properly inspect its said system of wiring, appurtenances, and equipment whereby the current was transmitted to the said theater, as aforesaid, and in permitting the said wiring appurtenances, and equipment to become in such defective condition and such condition that it failed to perform the function for which it was installed in controlling and reducing the current and the voltage, quantity, or power of said current which was transmitted to the said building in such low voltage, quantity, or power as to be proper and safe for uses in said building, and in negligently permitting the said current to be transmitted to said Piedmont Theatre and its wiring system and equipment in such high voltage, quantity, and power as to make it unsafe for persons to use and handle the equipment of said theater in the manner in which they were accustomed ordinarily to handle the same, and this said negligence produced the injury to the plaintiff in that the said current of electricity was transmitted to the iron which she was handling, as aforesaid, in a dangerous, unsafe, and unusual quantity, voltage and power."

The Southern Public Utilities Company denies these allegations.

From the judgment of nonsuit rendered against plaintiff in the court below, she assigns error, and appeals to the Supreme Court.

J. F Flowers, of Charlotte, for appellant.

Cooke & Wyllie, of Greensboro, for appellees Pryor and Virginia-Carolina Amusement Co.

W. S. O'B. Robinson, Jr., and R. S. Hutchinson, both of Charlotte, for appellee Southern Public Utilities Co.

CLARKSON J.

Upon a motion as of nonsuit upon the evidence, the evidence must be considered in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.

The plaintiff testified:

"The iron was connected by the electrician of the house. When I took hold of the iron I started getting a severe shock. I found I was grounded both feet, and I could not release the iron, and I immediately started screaming for help. The electrician came and he rushed up to the socket and tried to turn it off; when he touched the socket it began sputtering, and started spitting little flames, and knocked him over against the dressing room. He ran up stairs to the switchboard. At that time in the Piedmont Theatre they had a switchboard with all the switches on it, and he tried to relieve me from the iron by throwing the lever. All the time I was grounded, and I was getting this full shock. This whole side of my right arm, my right side and my right limbs had given away. It was going up into my heart, and I thought ay moment I was going to meet death, and I started screaming. He shouted to the operator to cut it off, but I have been told since that the operator was deaf and dumb, and of course he could not hear the electrician, and then the electrician ran to the front of the house. I can't say just how the current was cut off. When I was released I fainted and was unconscious. I was taken over to the doctor's, and there I suffered shock and chills, and I found my finger had been severely burned. I was then taken over to my hotel, or rooming house, and there I suffered shock and chills, and it has been a wreck to my system ever since. I have been in a terrible condition, and I can hardly use my right arm and right hand in cold weather, and I have a spasmodic condition left in my right arm and hand--it quivers all the time; I have very little use of it. I carried my hand in a sling for 18 weeks, and as a result of this injury I have just the same feeling in my hand as you would have in your foot when it has been asleep. It is a tingle, and, as I say, a spasmodic condition of tingling and it is very painful in cold weather. Sometimes I can scarcely move my arms. It was customary at the Piedmont Theatre at that time for members of the company to press a wardrobe in the theater at each change of the bill. The pressing was done by an electric iron, and this particular week the electric iron was connected just on the entrance of the stage door. The connection was customarily made to the light socket, and this connection of the iron to the socket was made by an electrician, on the day I was injured. He was supposed to be, to the best of my knowledge, in charge of the electric apparatus of the Piedmont Theatre. He was the man who had actual charge of the switchboard in the theater. He said it would be all right to press, and that he would connect the iron for me; for me to get the sheet on which I wanted to iron and use the table that he had put below the socket. I used the table, and received the injury at that table immediately. It was when I started to take hold of the iron. Of course, after he connected it the iron was left to heat, but it was upon my taking hold of the iron."

The measure of care required is stated in 20 C.J. p. 341, § 36, as follows:

"The measure or degree of care required of electric companies is variously stated; as usual and ordinary care; reasonable care; such care as a reasonably prudent man would exercise under the circumstances; care commensurate with or proportionate to the danger; high degree of diligence and foresight; all that human care, vigilance and foresight can reasonably do; all the foresight and caution which can be reasonably expected of men under similar circumstances, every protection accessible to prevent danger; the utmost degree of care; a high degree of care; a very high degree of care; the highest degree of care which skill and foresight can obtain, consistent with the practical conduct of their business under the known methods and present state of the particular art; the care required to prevent injury; such care and caution as to protect the public, and especially those who might be called upon to come near or in contact with wires, from dangers they could not see and which they might readily overlook. Reasonable care does not require such precautions as will absolutely prevent injury or render accidents impossible. By utmost care and skill is meant the highest degree of care and skill known which may be used under the same or similar circumstances. One using electric currents must take into account the acts of strangers and of the public generally."

Electric appliances are becoming more in use each day. The old methods are giving way to the new. These appliances are used for ironing, cooking, washing, heating, etc. The North and South Carolina Public Utility Information Bureau states that there are now some 52 electric appliances that can be used in the home and elsewhere, such as electric ranges, bake ovens sewing machine motors, washing machines, churns, disk stoves, dish washers, fireless cookers, fans, grills, ironing machines, etc. Many new uses will yet be discovered. These appliances can be purchased at all the leading electric power stores. These appliances have been of great benefit and use, saving of time and money, to the...