69 Pa. Super. 478 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1918
Opinion by
The plaintiff brings this action to recover damages for the death of her husband, which she alleges to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant company. The decedent was employed by W. E. & D. B. Specht who conducted a store in a building to which the defendant company furnished an electric current for the purpose of light. Among the duties of the decedent was the taking care of the heating apparatus, and for that purpose he went to the cellar, on November 24, 1914, and after he had been there for some time other persons who went into the cellar found his body lying on the floor while one of his hands grasped an extension cord to which an electric lamp was attached. He was dead, the hand which had been in contact with the cord containing the electric wire was found to be badly burned and the evidence seemed to leave no doubt that he had been killed by an electric current. The plaintiff recovered a verdict and ■judgment in the court below and the defendant appeals.
The main lines of the defendant company carried a current of twenty-two hundred volts, which was reduced by passing through a transformer located on a pole near the Specht property to one hundred and twenty volts and through this transformer the Specht building and a number of other customers received the current for lighting purposes. The evidence clearly established that SO' long as the transformer was kept in proper condition the current which passed through it could be safely used for lighting purposes, if the wires and appliances within the buildings of the customers were properly maintained. The plaintiff alleged that the transformer was not kept in proper condition and that it permitted an excessive current to pass through. There can be no doubt, under
The defendant company contended that the decedent was injured because of the dangerous condition of the extension cord which had been found in his hand when dead. This cord was suspended from the ceiling of the cellar, was some ten or twelve feet long, had an electric lamp at the end thereof which could be carried about and when not in use was hung over a nail or spike. This cord and all the electric wiring appliances within the building had been installed by Josiah Specht who had an electric plant and for many years supplied his own current. Some years prior to the accident the present owners, his sons, acquired the property and subsequently discontinued the use of the private electric plant and since that time they have obtained their electric current from the defendant company, using the wires and appliances within the building which had been installed by their father. The defendant company had not been in any way connected with the installation or maintenance of the electric appliances within the building. The witnesses for the plaintiff who found the body of the decedent with his hand grasping the extension cord said that the part of the
The defendant company had not, as we have already said, had anything to do with the installation of the extension cord or any of the wires in the building, it had never controlled them in any manner, and there was no evidence that the company or any of its agents or employees had any knowledge of any defect therein. We are not here dealing with a case in which the defendant
The judgment is reversed and a venire facias de novo awarded.