Wilczynski v. Milwaukee Elec. Ry. & Light Co.

• Decision Date: 01 June 1920
• Citation: 177 N.W. 876,171 Wis. 508
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Parties: WILCZYNSKI v. MILWAUKEE ELECTRIC RY. & LIGHT CO.

171 Wis. 508

177 N.W. 876

WILCZYNSKI

v.MILWAUKEE ELECTRIC RY. & LIGHT CO.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

June 1, 1920.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Milwaukee County; Oscar M. Fritz, Judge.

Action by Josephine Wilczynski against the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

Siebecker, Vinje, and Owen, JJ., dissenting.

Anton Karbowski, while at work in the yard of the Kanawha Fuel Company, on the 31st day of July, 1916, was instantly killed by an electrical shock. The widow claimed compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act (Laws 1911, c. 50). The making of the claim operated under the provisions of that act to assign to the Kanawha Fuel Company her claim against the defendant company, she claiming that the death of her husband was due to the negligence of the defendant. The Kanawha Fuel Company then reassigned the cause of action to the widow. As plaintiff in this action, she having remarried, she claims under and by virtue of such assignment.

At the time of his injury Karbowski was engaged in handling a coal bucket which was being used to unload coke from a gondola car.

The bucket was operated by means of a 52 horse power electric motor geared to a drum, with which it was connected by steel cables. The motor was on a wooden structure, and not metallically connected with the ground, but there was a complete metallic connection between the frame of the motor and the bucket, by means of the gears, the drum, and the steel cables; and if a person touched the clam shell while standing on the ground, or metallically connected therewith, his body would complete the electrical circuit between the frame of the motor and the ground.

The fuel company employed the defendant company to install the electrical apparatus used in unloading this car. The particular motor in question gave some trouble during the week preceding the accident, and the defendant took a part thereof to its shop, repaired it, and it was replaced by the defendant on the day of the accident. The motor was then started, and appeared to operate properly. A few minutes later, and before the employés of the defendant had left the premises, Karbowski, who was handling the bucket on the car of coke, complained of receiving an electric shock. The defendant's employé, upon being notified of this fact, discovered that there was a presence of electricity on the motor frame, which he correctly thought to be due to static electricty. He sought to remedy this by placing a wire from the motor frame to the other machinery, and after having installed the wire, left the premises. In the afternoon about 1:30 Karbowski again complained of the presence of electricity. Bartls, one of the defendant company's employés, picked up a shovel, grasped the wooden handle with one hand, and in Karbowski's presence touched the end of the shovel to the clam shell. He received so severe a shock that he was thrown some distance, and the shock was so great that he could not touch the bucket at all.

Bartls and Andweg, the operator of the motor, neither of whom knew anything about electrical appliances, then looked the motor over to see where the trouble lay. They found the short wire installed by the defendant's employé, and, considering it to be useless, as in fact it was, removed it. They discovered that the motor frame was not grounded. At a previous time, when engaged in operating the same motor, Andweg had observed that there was a ground wire running from the motor. He then procured from the storeroom a piece of wire, which he attached to the frame of the motor, attaching one end to the frame of the motor, and the other end to the head of an iron rod some two feet long, and shoved the rod into the ground its full length. The wire was a No. 12 iron wire. Andweg then started the motor again, and Bartls, who was the foreman, touched the clam shell and received no shock. The work of unloading the car then continued, Bartls handling the bucket in place of Karbowski, until about 4 o'clock. Bartls then turned the work over to Karbowski while he made a temporary tightening of the friction on the hoisting drum. Karbowski grasped the bucket as it was raised out of the car, and fell over dead from an electric shock.

The explanation given by an electrical expert is this: The electric power for operating the motor was furnished over a three-phase system, consisting of three wires called phase wires, all of which carried electric current. The normal voltage between any one wire and the ground was about 240 volts, but the voltage from one wire to another wire was about 480 to 530 volts. A single connection from one phase wire to the ground would not result in any escape of current in excess of 240 volts, because there would be no complete circuit from one phase wire to another. Such a circuit would be completed, however, if two phase wires became simultaneously grounded, because the full current of 530 volts would then flow from one wire through the ground and back to the other wire. Due to some defect in the motor operating the clam shell, resulting, as the jury found, from the defendant's negligence, the frame of the motor was permitted to become electrified. A properly installed ground wire from the frame of the motor to the ground would have carried off any current so escaping to the frame of the motor. There being no ground wire in this case up to...