Myhan v. The Louisiana Electric Light & Power Co.

• Decision Date: 02 December 1889
• Docket Number: 10,333
• Citation: 6 So. 799,41 La.Ann. 964
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: WILLIAM MYHAN AND WIFE v. THE LOUISIANA ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY

6 So. 799

41 La.Ann. 964

WILLIAM MYHAN AND WIFE v. THE LOUISIANA ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY

No. 10,333

Supreme Court of Louisiana

December 2, 1889

APPEAL from the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans. Ellis, J.

Geo. L Bright, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Farrar Jonas & Kruttschnitt, for Defendant and Appellee.

OPINION

BERMUDEZ C.J.

This is an action in damages brought by a father and mother under the provisions of Article R. C. C. 2315 (2294), as amended in 1884, p. 94, No. 71.

They aver substantially, that their minor son, Edward aged about eighteen years, while in the employ of the defendant company, was, on the 8th of August, 1888, killed by the gross negligence and fault of the latter. The amount claimed is $ 25,000.

The defense is a general denial, and contributory negligence.

The case was tried by a jury who rendered a verdict in favor of the defendant company.

From the judgment thereon, against them, the plaintiffs appeal.

The charge made against the defendants is, that the accident occurred by their gross negligence and fault, which consisted in using wires which were not perfectly insulated, which formed a network on the floor, whereas they should have gone direct from the dynamo to the ceiling, and should have been placed beyond the reach of the employees.

In exoneration the company charges counter, that the young man, instead of approaching the dynamo (No. 35) in the reasonable and proper manner required by the circumstances, did so deliberately from the front, and deliberately straddled the two current-bearing wires leading from it, one to the ceiling and one to dynamo 50, which was coupled with dynamos 35 and 36 into a series of three; that by the movement thus occasioned, one of the wires touched the interior of the boy's thigh, and the other one the exterior of his buttock, thus making a circuit through his body, the shock of which threw him on the dynamo and thence on the floor, where he lay upon these wires, breaking the circuit in his fall, and receiving the full force of it, which produced instant death.

The stubborn facts of the case are, that Edward Myhan a young man of about eighteen years, was in the employ of the company on the 8th of August, 1888, as night oiler, in the dynamo room of their plant in this city; that during the night of that day, while in the discharge of his duties as oiler, pressing tallow down in the box of a dynamo, he came in contact with one or more wires, on or near the floor, and that he was instantly killed.

There were only two persons present when the accident occurred -- the electrician in charge of the dynamo room, and a fellow dynamo oiler.

The former (Crowley) says that from January, 1886, to August 14, 1888, he was employed by the defendant corporation, as chief dynamo man, in their large plant in New Orleans. There were about sixty dynamos in the establishment, arranged on the floor in series of three, each three connected to the plugboard.

He knew Edward Myhan, and had known him for nineteen months previous to his death, which occurred on August 8th, 1888, at about 11 o'clock in the night, in the arc light dynamo department of the defendant corporation. He was in the act of lubricating the dynamo box with tallow. Owing to the arrangement of the wires on the floor, he had to stand astride the wires in order to get at the box. While in this position one of his legs came in contact with a wire, and he received the full force of the electric current. At that time the witness was about twenty feet away. His attention was attracted by a dull thud and a flash. On turning around, he saw Myhan on the floor. He had broken the circuit in his fall. He (witness) pulled one of the wires from under his body, raised him in his arms, sent for the Superintendent, who at once came down. Myhan gave one or two gasps thereafter, and then expired.

The witness further states:

Edward Myhan was killed by the fault of the company defendant. The fault was in the arrangement of the dynamo wires. Part of the dynamos on the opposite side were properly arranged. Each dynamo was connected to the plug board by two wires running from the dynamo to the ceiling direct. On the other side, where Myhan was killed, three dynamos were connected to the plug board by two wires, part of these wires running along the floor of the building, and part of them along the ceiling.

A proper arrangement would have been to connect each dynamo by two wires direct to the plug board, and all the wires passing direct from the dynamos to and along the ceiling to the plug board.

The arrangement of the wires on the floor was the cause of the death of Edward Myhan, for, had they been connected from the dynamo to the ceiling, there would have been no danger in standing where Edward Myhan received the shock which caused his death.

The company, in the judgment of the witness, was negligent and careless in the arrangement of part of their wires on the floor.

He says that he frequently told the manager of the company, and also the superintendent, who were in charge of the plant, at different times during his services for the company, that there was great danger in leaving the wires on the floor and unprotected.

No notice, says he, was ever taken of the warning, except they would remark they would attend to it by and by, or when they got a new superintendent, or offered some excuse of the kind, until the day after Edward Myhan was killed, when the superintendent and the general manager told him to get carpenters and have nail poles on the dynamo frames, to attach the knobs known as insulators to the poles, and raise the wires from the floor and run them on the insulators, which he did.

Another witness (Sittig), a fellow servant of Myhan, who was also present at the sad occurrence, was heard. He was in the employ of the company when he testified, and had been previously, and was in such employ when Myhan was killed.

Myhan walked to the machine, straddled the wire and put his hand on the cup, and as he did so one wire rested a little above his knee, on the left leg, and the other touched him on the right leg, on the inside, and he put both hands on the cup and he fell with his back on the machine. Crowley ran him (witness) away and told him he would get killed.

He was walking to Myhan, when he was killed, saw him drop; he had his hand on the tallow cup shoving down the tallow. He fell on the dynamo with his back. There were two wires attached to the dynamo, leading to another dynamo near the end. There were three dynamos connected by wires, two leading to each dynamo. The wires were on the floor. Nearly all the dynamos were in this way; three to the circuit. Wires were on the floor, where the men had to walk.

The morning after the killing the witness went home, and when he returned in the afternoon, 6 p.m., he found that some of the wires had been raised with poles overhead.

Two other witnesses (Burns and Bogel), testify in corroboration, except as to the circumstances of the accident. They establish the notices to the manager and superintendent, the dangerous character of the wires, the neglect, after notice, to remove them.

The change of the wires after the accident is shown by another witness -- Wilson.

An electrician (Derbin), employed on defendants' plant across the river, says that the wires there are not laid on the floor, but run to the ceiling.

Another electrician (Krapp), of the Edison Company, who had charge of the Edison station...