118 Ky. 830 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1904
Lead Opinion
Opinion of the court by
Reversing.
The arm of appellant has withered and become useless by coming in contact with a live wire of appellee. It occurred while painting on a. house to which the wire was attached. Appellant claims that he received the injury by reason of appellee’s negligence in not having the wire properly insulated. This was the question of fact at issue on the trial of the case. The jury returned a verdict for the appellants and fixed his damages at one cent. He asks a reversal on the grounds (1) that the verdict fixing damages is flagrantly against the weight of the evidence; (2) that the court erred to his prejudice in the admission of evidence.
It is the contention of appellee that under section 311, Code Civ. Prac., the judgment can not be reversed because of the smallness of damages in an action for an injury to the person. The evidence shows that he was earning and could earn at his trade as a painter $15 a week, and that the
The judgment is reversed, with directions for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Rehearing
Response to petition for rehearing by
Counsel seems to think the court was in error in stating that appellee introduced evidence showing that it had notice the day before the accident that the painters were at work on the house where it happened. This is substantially correct, because John Showaiter, an employe of appellee. whose business it was to look after the matter of having the electric current taken from houses that were being painted, testified that the day before the accident he knew the painters were at work on the house. His knowledge was the knowledge of the company, and the knowledge it had was equivalent to notice.
The court does not want to be understood as holding that it is not competent to prove the general custom which existed in Louisville, which required painters, or their foreman, to give the electric light company notice that they are ' engaged in painting a house to which its wires are attached. The court simply held that in view of the fact that it had notice that the painters were at work on the house, and the further fact that Mr. Kinkead, the company’s electrician, testified that it was a rule of the company to take the