Vaught's Adm'x v. Kentucky Utilities Co.
| Decision Date | 07 December 1956 |
| Citation | 296 S.W.2d 459 |
| Parties | Charles D. VAUGHT'S ADMINISTRATRIX (Monnie Vaught), Appellant, v. KENTUCKY UTILITIES COMPANY, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Fritz Krueger, W. R. Jones, Somerset, Allen Prewitt, Frankfort, for appellant.
Squire R. Ogden, T. M. Galphin, Jr., Ogden, Galphin & Abell, louisville, Ben D. Smith, Somerset, for appellee.
Appellant, Monnie Vaught, brought this action as the personal representative of Charles D. Vaught seeking to recover $75,000 damages to his estate and $1,520 funeral and burial expenses from the Kentucky Utilities Company on the ground that the company had negligently constructed and maintained its electrical wires, thereby causing the electrocution of Vaught. At the trial, after the introduction of all evidence by both parties, the court directed the jury to return a verdict for the company upon the grounds there was no proof of negligence and the proof showed that deceased was guilty of contributory negligence which barred recovery, as a matter of law. The administratrix appeals.
The accident occurred at Science Hill, Pulaski County, Kentucky, about two o'clock on the bright, sunny afternoon of June 24, 1954, when Vaught was attempting to install a water pipe twenty-six feet and three to five inches in length in a water well. The pipe was to be fitted down into the well to draw the water out, as part of an electrical pumping system which he was employed to install for a Mr. Butts, who owned the property where the well was located, and lived approximately 225 feet from the well. Vaught was thirty-nine years of age and had fourteen years of experience in electrical work and in the installation of pumps. Some time prior to the time of the accident, he and a helper had installed a wooden pole at the side of the well to support the electrical wires from the Butts' house to the pump.
The well was first dug about 1902. In 1929 the company ran high-voltage lines near the well, from which at that time the water was taken by a system of a hand operated bucket and pulley. The top of the well was enclosed by a concrete box two feet and seven inches high about 1932, and in 1951 the company relocated one of its utility poles some twelve inches and replaced some small poles with larger ones. The scene where the well was located has always been an open field, and the nearest building to the well was the Butts' house, about 225 feet away. The well was 200 feet from the old U. S. 27 Highway and within 400 to 500 feet from a restaurant and filling station across the road. Three of the company's high tension lines ran north to the top of a pole 29 feet high and 75 feet from the well. This pole at a lower level had two crossarms, to which connect a large number of telephone wires. Two uninsulated outside electrical wires carried 7,200 volts of electricity, and an inside wire, constructed at a slightly lower elevation than the outside wires, was a neutral or ground wire, contact with which will not result in injury. All of these wires were within plain view and no trees grew in the vicinity.
At a point directly beneath the wires, the edge of the well was 9 feet from it to the east. Appellee's measurements the day after the accident showed that the highvoltage wire nearest the well was 23 feet and 10 inches above the ground. Appellant takes the position that this wire was from 20 1/2 feet to 21 feet above the ground, according to the measurement made on the afternoon of the accident by a Somerset, Kentucky, merchant, which measurement certainly was not minutely accurate. The evidence is undisputed that the high-voltage wire nearest to the well was 23 feet and 6 inches from the top edge of the concrete box covering the top of the well.
There were no eyewitnesses to the accident, as Mr. Vaught was left by a helper to work alone about twenty minutes before. Several persons were attracted to the scene within twenty minutes after the accident by the smoke and fire from Vaught's clothes and the grass near where he lay, about 5 feet southwest of the well. The pipe, weighing around 45 pounds, was resting against the high-voltage wire at a 45 degree angle, with from 1 to 2 feet of the upper end extending above the wire and the lower end sticking in the ground from 1 to 3 feet from the well. Vaught died a short time after the witnesses arrived.
The standard height for electrical transmission wires of between 750 and 15,000 voltage, as prescribed by the Public Service Commission of Kentucky and the National Electrical Safety Handbook, is a minimum of 15 feet over places accessible to pedestrians. The field over which the wires ran is within this classification prescribed by the safety codes, and the wires are 8 feet above the minimum height, according to the company's measurements. Even by the somewhat inaccurate measurements of 20 1/2 to 21 feet taken by the merchant, the height of the wires was about 6 feet above the minimum standards. The minimum height along roads in rural districts is 18 feet, and when crossing public streets and roads, in urban and rural districts, the wires must be 20 feet above the ground.
The appellant urges that when the company ran its high-voltage wires across the field where the well was being...
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