Mississippi Power & Light Co. v. Walters

• Decision Date: 25 November 1963
• Docket Number: No. 42657,42657
• Citation: 158 So.2d 2,248 Miss. 206
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: MISSISSIPPI POWER & LIGHT COMPANY et al. v. W. R. WALTERS.

Page 2

158 So.2d 2

248 Miss. 206

MISSISSIPPI POWER & LIGHT COMPANY et al. v. W. R. WALTERS.

No. 42657.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Nov. 25, 1963.

Wise, Smith & Carter, Green, Green & Cheney, Jackson, William A. Huff, Forest, Bethel Ferguson, Forrest B. Jackson, Jackson, O. B. Triplett, Jr., Forest, Daniel, Coker & Horton, Fred J. Lotterhos, Jr., Jackson, for appellants.

Roy Noble Lee, James W. Lee, Forest, Bob Ray, Jackson, for appellee.

KYLE, Justice.

This case is before us on appeal by Mississippi Power & Light Company, a corporation, Cities Service Oil Company, a corporation, and Larco Drilling Company, a partnership composed of I. P. LaRue, Jr., and others, defendants in the court below, from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Scott County, Mississippi, rendered against the above named defendants in favor of W. R. Walters, plaintiff in the court below, in the amount of $25,000 as damages, for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff on March 14, 1961, when he, as an employee of Luther McGill, Incorporated, was engaged in removing oil well equipment from an oil well site located in Simpson County, Mississippi.

The record shows that the injuries complained of were suffered as a result of an electric shock emanating from an electric power line owned and operated by Mississippi Power & Light Company at a time when the plaintiff was operating an 'A-Frame' truck equipped with gin poles and a metal cable in close proximity to the power line. The defendants named in the plaintiff's declaration were as follows: (1) Mississippi Power & Light Company, a corporation hereinafter referred to as the 'Power Company'; (2) Cities Service Oil Company, a corporation hereinafter referred to as 'Cities Service' or the 'Oil Company'; (3) Larco Drilling Company, a partnership composed of members of the LaRue family hereinafter referred to as 'Larco'; and (4) J. C. Bowman, d/b/a J. C. Bowman Trucking Company. During the course of the trial the plaintiff took a voluntary nonsuit as to J. C. Bowman.

The record shows that the oil and gas lease under which the oil well was drilled was a lease, covering lands in Simpson County, executed by C. M. Wells to Continental Oil Company on April 15, 1954, which had been assigned by Continental to Arkansas Fuel Oil Corporation by cross assignment dated September 2, 1958. The well drilling contract under which the well was drilled was a contract entered into between Arkansas Fuel Oil Company and Larco Drilling Company on September 30, 1960.

Arkansas Fuel Oil Company obtained the initial permit for authority to drill the well, to be known as Wells-Womack No. 1, from the State Oil and Gas Board on October 4, 1960; and immediately thereafter Larco procured the services of J. C. Bowman, a heavy hauler of oil field equipment, to haul the drilling rig and other machinery and equipment from the Gwinville Field, about 12 miles north of Prentiss, Mississippi to the well site selected by Arkansas Fuel Oil Company, which was situated immediately east of a public road running north and south four or five miles northeast of the Town of Magee. The site was approximately 200 feet in length and 150 feet in width. High-tension lines of Mississippi Power & Light Company were running in a northerly-southerly direction across the well site. The power lines had been erected in 1928, and were owned and operated by the defendant Power Company. The lines consisted of three wires bearing 13,800 volts of electricity. The wires were approximately 20 feet above the ground, and were uninsulated. The point selected for the drilling of the well was only about 75 feet east of the high-tension lines. The only means of access to the well site was an improvised roadway leading from the public road on the west to the well site and passing under the high-tension lines. The equipment used in drilling the well and stored on the well site consisted of an oil well drilling rig and a great quantity of heavy machinery and pipe line equipment.

The drilling operations were begun on November 5, 1960. On December 2, 1960, Arkansas Fuel Oil Company conveyed its oil and gas properties to Cities Service Reserve, Incorporated; and on December 14, 1960, Cities Service Reserve conveyed the properties to Cities Service Oil Company. The well was completed on or about January 13, 1961. The well was drilled to a depth of 13,780 feet. It was a dual well producing oil from two horizons; and Larco, with the permission of Cities Service, had Bowman to disassemble and stack the rig and other drilling machinery and equipment on the well location under or in close proximity to the high-tension lines of the Power Company.

A few weeks after the well had been completed Larco made arrangements with Luther McGill, Inc., for the hauling of its drilling rig and equipment to a new drilling site near Merrit, several miles southeast of the Wells-Womack No. 1 well; and on March 10, 1961, Luther McGill's haulers appeared at the well site and began to load and move the equipment to the new drilling site in the Merrit Field. The appellee, Walters, and Alpha C. Dearman were employees of McGill. Walters operated an A-Frame truck equipped with a winch and a steel cable for hoisting and loading and drilling rig equipment and oil field supplies. The cable was fitted over a pulley at the top of the A-Frame, and attached to the end of the cable was a short chain, which was to be wrapped around and securely fastened to the piece of equipment which was to be picked up. Dearman was the swamper or helper and cableman who worked with Walters in the loading of the equipment.

The accident which resulted in Walters' injury and Dearman's death by electrocution occurred on March 14, 1961, while Walters and Dearman were undertaking to load a heavy piece of oil drilling equipment referred to in the record as a swivel, which had been stored under the high-tension lines of the Power Company when the drilling rig was disassembled by Bowman in January. The swivel was 8 feet or 8 1/2 feet long, approximately 3 feet wide, and weighed approximately 4,000 pounds. Walters and Dearman were attempting to life the swivel and place it on a truck which was being operated by Hubert Edwards. Walters' A-Frame truck was on the west side of the power lines. The tops of the gin poles on the A-Frame truck were approximately 19 feet from the ground; and, according to Walters' testimony, Walters backed the A-Frame truck toward the swivel and under Dearman's direction stopped the truck with his airbrakes when the gin poles were 3 1/2 feet or 4 feet from the westernmost power line. Walters' right hand was on the airbrake. Dearman had hold of the winch line and hook. Dearman pulled the winch line toward him to unwind it from the winch drum so that he could hook the chain attached to the end of the cable around the swivel. When Dearman pulled the winch line toward him the third time a current of electricity passed from the power lines into the bodies of both workmen. Hubert Edwards, who was seated in the cab of his truck about 40 or 50 feet from Walters' gin pole truck, heard an outcry and went immediately to the scene of the accident. He found Dearman lying on the ground six or eight inches from the swivel. Walters had fallen to the ground outside of his truck. Both men were carried to the hospital immediately. Dearman was dead when the ambulance arrived at the hospital.

The plaintiff filed his declaration against the above named defendants on June 16, 1961. After stating the facts as outlined above, the plaintiff charged that each of the defendants knew, or by the exercise of ordinary care should have known, that the oil well drilling rig and other heavy machinery and equipment were being disassembled and stacked under and in close proximity to the Power Company's high-tension lines; that the defendants knew, or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known, that in lifting and removing the heavy machinery and equipment under or in close proximity to the high-tension lines long cranes, booms and gin poles would be required and would be used. The plaintiff further alleged that each of the defendants, in the exercise of ordinary care, should have foreseen and anticipated the danger of electrocution to which the plaintiff and others working under and in close proximity to the high-tension lines would be subjected while engaged in removing the heavy machinery and equipment from the oil well location; and that each of the defendants had carelessly and negligently failed to have a caution order in force, and had carelessly and negligently failed to place and make available a safety man to warn the workmen against the danger of electrocution.

Other specific charges of negligence were made against the several defendants, respectively, as follows:

(1) That the defendant Power Company was under the duty to use the highest degree of care in constructing, maintaining and operating its high-tension lines over the oil well area for the safety of the plaintiff and others who, while working in close proximity to the high-tension wires, might come in contact with the wires; that the defendant Power Company was grossly negligent in maintaining its high-tension lines charged with 14,000 volts of electricity too low over the oil well location for the safety of persons engaged in disassembling, stacking and removing the drilling rig and other oil well machinery and equipment; that the defendant Power Company, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have foreseen and anticipated the danger of electrocution to plaintiff and others working around, under and in close proximity to its high-tension lines, and should have raised its lines to a safe height to avoid injury to the plaintiff and other workmen engaged in disassembling, stacking and removing the drilling rig and other heavy machinery and equipment under and in close proximity to the high-tension wires; and that the...