196 Iowa 337 | Iowa | 1923
The defendant owns and operates its own electric light and power plant. The decedent was killed by contact with one of its wires, carrying a voltage of 2,300. The accident occurred at 7 o’clock on the morning of October 13, 1920. The wire had broken, from some cause, during the night, and sometime after 10 P. M. The decedent was a young man 18 years of age, a college student at Ames, and engaged also mornings and evenings in the business of selling and delivering Des Moines newspapers. He was making his route at the time of the accident. This route took him through the alley near which the break in the wire had occurred, and where the broken end of the wire hung to the ground. There was no eyewitness to the immediate accident, though persons near by heard the first and only cry of the stricken man, and rushed to the scene, too late, however, to find him alive. At the close of the evidence, the' defendant unsuccessfully moved for a directed verdict. One of its contentions here is that such motion should have been sustained. We find that the motion was properly overruled, for the reasons later appearing in our consideration of other specific errors.
The trial court submitted to the jury three alleged grounds of negligence, substantially as follows: (1) That the defendant had constructed its line out of inefficient material, and that it was inadequate for the service required; (2) that it had failed to use diligence either to repair the broken wire or to shut off the power therefrom; (3) that the defendant had failed to equip its plant with suitable devices to enable it to discover promptly a break in,its primary wires.
The argument of appellant is directed against each of the instructions wherein alleged grounds of negligence were submitted. The argument in each case is predicated, in the main, upon absence of evidence in support of either ground.
Alleys are made for use. They have their appropriate uses. They are intended as a convenience. Travel thereover is a proper part of their use, whenever the convenience of the user requires it. The decedent was making his usual route. If the alley was a convenient part of it, he had a right to use it. There
The foregoing are the grounds of reversal principally relied on and argued by appellant. We shall not extend our discussion herein beyond the argument. Our examination of other errors suggested and touched upon satisfies us that they are not well taken.
We find no prejudicial error in the record, and the judgment of the district court is — Affirmed.