18 Ga. App. 454 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1916
Christo sued the Macon Gas Company for damages for personal injuries caused by an alleged explosion of gas in' his apartment. The facts alleged in his petition and which are pertinent to this decision are substantially as follows: Christo occupied two rooms on the third floor of an old three-story brick building, in one of which was an open fire-place. The Macon Gas Company put in a gas connection for another tenant of this building, who had an apartment on the second floor just under that occupied by Christo. In making this connection the gas company used an old pipe which had been in the building for some years, and which had not been used recently. This pipe, which was used to carry the gas to the tenant on the second floor, who had applied for it, extended beyond that floor through the floor of Christo’s room, up the wall and beside the chimney to the fireplace, across the ceiling in that room and through th.e partition into the other room of Christo’s. In this second room the pipe had a T joint; and the pipe extended along the ceiling of this room and passed out of the plaintiff’s apartment. In this latter room in which the T joint was located, and near to the T joint, the pipe was entirely severed; but this fact was unknown to Christo. When the gas company made the connection for the tenant of the second floor, it made no examination of the pipe in Christo’s apartment, and nothing was done to close the cut in the pipe. The aforesaid connection was made prior to January 1, 1915. On that
In our opinion the case should have been submitted to the jury. A company which produces and furnishes gas is bound to use such skill and diligence in its operations as is proportionate to the delicacy, difficulty, and nature of that particular business. Chisholm v. Atlanta Gas Light Co., 57 Ga. 29; 20 Cyc. 1170. Such a company, before turning on or permitting to be turned on gas for the benefit of a tenant in an apartment house who has applied for it, must use reasonable precautions to ascertain that the pipes in the building are in such condition that gas will not flow into the apartments of tenants who have not applied for it, to their injury; and it is for the jury to say whether or not the company, before permitting gas to be turned on for the benefit of one tenant of an apartment house, used reasonable precautions to ascertain that no harm' would thereby result to other tenants who had not applied for it, by the gas escaping into their rooms. In such a ease the company can not deny its liability for injuries resulting from failure to use reasonable precautions, before turning gas into an apartment building, to see that injury could not result from the escape of gas into the rooms of tenants not applying for it, on the ground that it had no right to enter upon the premises of the
Under the facts in this case it was also for the jury to say whether the plaintiff was entirely free from fault, or whether he was guilty of contributory negligence, and, if so, to what extent.
Judgment reversed.