44 Ind. App. 435 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1909
Appellee Ambre brought this action in the Lake Superior Court against the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company and the appellant, to recover damages for personal injuries received on August 31, 1904, while a lineman employed by the telegraph company, and while engaged in the line of his duty searching for trouble on a certain wire of said company carried on a line of poles used jointly by the telegraph company and the electric company in the city of Hammond. The lower cross-arms were used by the electric company and the upper cross-arms by the telegraph company. The trouble on the line was what is known as a “ground,” which rendered the line useless for the transmission of messages beyond such point. The only way the plaintiff knew to test a “ground” at that point was to climb the pole, carrying a wire long enough to reach to the earth, and make a test by signaling the nearest telegraph station. While engaged in his work at that time and place he received a shock of electricity, which knocked him from said pole, resulting in the injuries complained of.
Upon affidavit of the telegraph company a change of venue was taken to Porter county, and upon the affidavit of plaintiff the venue was again changed to Laporte Superior Court, where the case was tried by jury. A general verdict was
These rulings are assigned as error.
Interrogatory nineteen and the answer thereto are substantially the same as interrogatory eighteen and answer.
The plaintiff testified that he knew it was dangerous to
It was not reversible error not to require the jury to re-answer interrogatory eighteen, yet the answers to interrogatories eighteen, nineteen, thirty-eight and fifty-four show an indifference to the evidence, upon the part of the jury, which, if not hostile to appellant, was, at least, most friendly to appellee Ambre.
Prom plaintiff’s testimony it appears that he knew that a wire carrying 300 or more volts was dangerous; that the wires on the lower cross-arms held electric light wires (the complaint alleged that he did not know it) ; that he knew they were insulated, and that insulation meant that probably there was a current there at some time; that at the time he went there he thought they were dead wires; that if he had known they were charged with electricity he would not have gone up there, because it was dangerous; that none of the employes of the electric company ever told him there was no current there; that he “just assumed they were dead wires” when he went up there that day; that he paid no attention whatever to these wires; that his eyesight was good before the injury, and the only reason he didn’t observe the surroundings was that they were of no interest to him; that his work was on this pole, and had nothing to do with the other lines; that he pulled the wire up to the first cross-arm used by the electric company, then went to the top of the pole and came down over the cross-arms, took hold of the wire he had left on the lower cross-arms, pulled it up between the wires of the electric company near the east end of the cross-arms; that he placed one foot between the wires of the electric company — the other leg was over the lower cross-arm of the telegraph company — dragged his wire between these wires, without any regard to them — as though they
Appellant earnestly insists that appellee Ambre’s testimony shows that he was guilty of contributory negligence, but that apart from his contributory negligence he could not recover, because the evidence shows it to have been a physical impossibility, from his position, to receive the shock from the joints; that he must have received it from the insulated wire, and as it was alleged that there was lack of insulation only at the joints, such finding would not be warranted by the complaint; that the evidence shows that there was plenty of room to rest his foot on the cross-arm without coming near the electric company’s joints; that the jury found that if he had looked he could have seen the bare joints in time to avoid coming in contact with them.
Judgment reversed, with instructions to sustain appellant ’s motion for a new trial, and for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.