Milligan v. Georgia Power Co.

• Decision Date: 13 October 1942
• Docket Number: 29566.
• Citation: 22 S.E.2d 662,68 Ga.App. 269
• Parties: MILLIGAN v. GEORGIA POWER CO.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

22 S.E.2d 662

68 Ga.App. 269

MILLIGAN v. GEORGIA POWER CO.

No. 29566.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

October 13, 1942

Rehearing Denied Nov. 12, 1942.

Syllabus by the Court.

C. E Milligan brought suit against Georgia Power Company to recover $25,000 damages because of the alleged negligence of the defendant. The petition alleged, in substance, that on May 24, 1939, he was employed as a painter by Cedartown Textiles, Inc., in Cedartown, Georgia, and was engaged in painting for it a large steel water tank located on the mill property and used in connection with the operation of its manufacturing plant; that the tank was built from the ground and was about thirty feet high; that there was a narrow steel ladder extending up the outside to the top of the tank which was used by the defendant's employees in climbing to the top of the tank for the purpose of inspecting, adjusting, and repairing the water gauge and other parts of the tank; that at said time and while the plaintiff was standing on and near the top of the ladder and while engaged in painting the tank his left arm and body came in contact with naked uninsulated, high-voltage, charged electric wire and wiring which led from another of the buildings of Cedartown Textiles, Inc., to the top of the tank, and that as he came in contact with the wire he was shocked to unconsciousness and thrown from the tank to the ground, receiving certain described injuries; that the defendant operated a large manufacturing plant in Cedartown, employing a large number of workmen, and used high-voltage electric current furnished by the defendant; that the wire and wiring were originally negligently constructed and installed by Cedartown Textiles Inc., in that they entirely lacked insulation near the point where they were fastened to the tank and that they remained in said defective and dangerous condition from the time they were constructed and installed, more than a year previously to the date the plaintiff received his injuries, until after he was injured; that the defendant

failed to inspect the wire and wiring at the time of construction and installation by Cedartown Textiles, Inc. and before the defendant turned on its current and began furnishing current for use over the wire and wiring; that said defective and dangerous condition of the wire and wiring became known to the defendant a considerable time previously to the date on which the plaintiff was injured, and that, even though the defendant knew of said dangerous defects, it continued to furnish electric current over the wire and wiring and was furnishing such current at the time the plaintiff was injured.

It was alleged that the defendant was negligent: (a) in turning on its electric current for use on said defective and dangerous wires without having first inspected the same; (b) in continuing to furnish electric current for such use after it had knowledge of such defective and dangerous condition; and (c) in running the electric current, which it owned, through the defective wiring, the current and wiring being under its control at the time of the plaintiff's injury and during all the time the defendant served electric current to the textile mills.

The plaintiff amended his petition by adding a second count in which, in addition to the allegations of count 1, it was alleged that the defendant had control or joint control over the current run over the said wires, and that, irrespective of notice, the defendant was negligent: (d) in running the current over the defective and improperly insulated wires which it controlled, and (e) in not having a printed sign or other form of warning at the ladder on the tank to warn persons of the danger from the uninsulated wire.

The defendant filed an answer denying liability and specifically denying that it was negligent in any respect or had control of the current of electricity which injured the plaintiff or had notice of any defective wiring and also denied the extent of the injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff.

On the trial of the case the following evidence was introduced on behalf of the plaintiff:

The plaintiff testified as to being injured by the current of electricity at the uninsulated ends of twisted wires in close proximity to a ladder while he was engaged in painting a water tank on the premises of the Cedartown Textiles Inc. When he was first employed the tank was not on the premises but was put up a year or more later and the wire was run there after the tank was installed by the mill on their property and used exclusively by the mill. He had been up the ladder on previous occasions and had to pass the wire and saw it but did not know that anything was wrong with it. On the day of his injury he came down the ladder for lunch and passed the wire, and on going back up the ladder after having had lunch a part of his body came in contact with the uninsulated portion of the wire, and the current of electricity thereon shocked him and produced described injuries.

James H. Smith testified by deposition that he was an electrician at Cedartown Textiles Inc. and had been working there for four years. His duties were to maintain the electrical equipment there. The Georgia Power Company substation was on the premises. Their switches were outside the substation. There are three sets of switches on the mill's side of the line and one set on the Georgia Power Company's side of the line, the substation being surrounded by an iron fence to protect it from outside interference. He had seen a key to that substation at the mill. No employee of the mill, so far as he knew, had ever gone in the substation. The power company employees read the meter. The switches are outside the fence which encloses the substation, both the switches on the high-voltage line and those on the reduced current line. Those switches are where they can be turned either by the employees of the mill or the employees of the power company. If the switches on the low-voltage side are closed and the switch on the high-voltage side is closed, that lets the current come through into the mill and the mill building. The power company employees could cut off the current at any time by opening the switch on the high-voltage side or those on the low-voltage side. Beyond those switches the next switches are just inside the mill building. The switches in the building can be used to cut the current on or off the machinery. To get to the tank at the time the plaintiff was injured the current had to come first through the substation, then through the company's meter, then through the switches and wires and on to the tank. That current, if it was on entirely to the tank, could be cut off by the power company opening its main switch on the big high-power wire just outside the station. If it was on at the tank it could be cut off by opening the switches just inside or nearer the mill from the substation. There are three switches that could cut it off. It could be cut off by one or the other of those switches. With reference to the power company having access to those switches, they did not have access to them just like he did. They never come and bother the switches inside. The switches are where anybody can go up there and open or close them. As to whether he considered it his duty to inspect the wiring leading up to the machinery, he did if there was anything wrong, to correct it, but the wiring was supposed to have been put up right and for that reason he never bothered it. It worked all right. When he went up the tank after the plaintiff was injured he made an inspection, and he found that the ends of the wire where it was wrapped around the insulators were open, but to his knowledge that is the way it was supposed to be. It was insulated wire to the tank, purported to be insulated, and attached by a bracket, a piece of iron with two porcelain spools on it for the wires to fasten to. The part uninsulated was the end of the wire that was clipped and twisted around to hold it on the insulator. The part exposed was just the end where the pliers had cut it off. It was not extending out; the end of the wire was brought around the spool and twisted around the other part of the wire and about a sixteenth of an inch of the wire was exposed and the wire carried 550 volts.

The same witness testified in person substantially as follows The substation is he estimates, 300 or 400 feet from the water tank. The Cedartown Textiles, Inc., bought the wires which are within the mill. The wire that goes to the water tank goes into No. 2 mill at the north end. It runs through No. 2 mill and on out the west side of that mill to No. 1 mill, and thence to a pole located southerly about the center of No. 1 mill, and from that pole to the corner of No. 3 mill, and, at the time of the plaintiff's injury, from No. 3 mill to the water tank. All of those wires were under his supervision as electrician of the mill, and if repairs or alterations were made he would be the one to make them. The wire, from the time it enters the mill until it gets to the water tank, is mill wiring. There are three switches on the line, two of them inside the mill and one at the transformer. The one at the transformer would cut the current off of the entire No. 2 mill. There are two other switches in the mill that belong to Cedartown Textiles, Inc, on this same line and which would control the current going to the water tank, so that if either of the switches in the mill was open no current could get to the water tank. The only place the power company has a switch is at the substation, on the high side of the line, that is, before it reaches the transformer. On the low side of the line are two switches but he does not know to whom they belong. They...