Smith v. Allegheny County Light Co.

• Decision Date: 03 January 1916
• Docket Number: 23
• Parties: Smith, Appellant, v. Allegheny County Light Company
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

96 A. 1088

251 Pa. 486

Smith, Appellant, v. Allegheny County Light Company

No. 23

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

January 3, 1916

Argued October 11, 1915

Appeal, No. 23, Oct. T., 1915, by plaintiff, from judgment of C.P. Allegheny Co., Jan. T., 1913, No. 2877, for defendant non obstante veredicto, in case of Laura Smith v. Allegheny County Light Company, a Corporation. Affirmed.

Trespass to recover damages for the death of plaintiff's husband.

The facts appear in the following opinion by SHAFER, J., sur defendant's motion for a new trial and for judgment n.o.v.

The action is by a widow for the death of her husband, alleged to be caused by the neglect of the defendant. The testimony on the part of the plaintiff showed that the deceased came to his death by coming in contact with an electric light wire in a shop occupied by himself and his partner; and that on a pole of the light company near this shop there was a contact of a 2,200-volt wire with the 110-volt wire supplying the electric light, caused by the breaking off of a pin from the arm sustaining the wires, and the burning or rubbing off of the insulation between the two wires. To show notice to the company of this state of affairs the partner of the deceased was called to testify that a day or two before the accident there had been a fire apparently caused by electricity in a saloon in the neighborhood, and that he called the office of the company in Carnegie, being the nearest regular office of the company, and asked for the "trouble man," and that someone answered that he was the trouble man, and thereupon the witness said to him: "There is some trouble up here, a place is burning down; you had better see it," and he answered, "all right." And he further testified that the next day he saw people which he believed to be workmen of the Allegheny County Light Company working at a pole some distance away from where the contact was afterwards found, although he did not know any of the people supposed to be representing the light company. It appeared in the evidence of the defendant, uncontradicted that the deceased was an employee of the Allegheny County Light Company, whose duty it was to look after the wires and poles of the company in the town of Bridgeville, where the accident happened. It also appeared from the testimony of both parties that he knew of the fire which took place at the saloon and saw how the metal ceiling had been melted by...