110 Va. 853 | Va. | 1910
delivered the opinion of the court.
Upon consideration of the evidence it is difficult to see wherein the defendant company has been guilty of any negligence that was proximately the cause of the injury which resulted in the death of the plaintiff’s intestate. If, however, the negligence of the defendant company was established, it would be under no liability to the plaintiff because his intestate is shown to have been guilty of such contributory negligence as to preclude all right of recovery by him.
The law will not weigh or apportion the concurring negligence of a plaintiff and defendant. There can be no recovery by a plaintiff who has been guilty of contributory negligence. Clinchfield Coal Co. v. Wheeler, 108 Va. 448, 62 S. E. 269.
At the time of his death the plaintiff’s intestate was working for the Bell Telephone Company; his business being to locate and remedy contacts between the wires of his employer and those of other companies, to disengage, disentangle and separate such wires, etc. Ble had been for sometime engaged in this character of work all over the city of Lynchburg, and it abundantly appears that he was thoroughly acquainted with the great danger to which he was constantly exposed, and fully advised of the necessity for constant care and vigilance on his part to avoid coming in contact with the wires about which he worked. On the day of the accident the gang of linemen of which deceased was a member assembled for the purpose of taking down an old cable of the telephone company. This cable was in the vicinity of other wires, the highest of which was the heavily charged wire of the defendant traction company. In addition to his general knowledge of the danger, the deceased was specially warned of the hazardous character of the work he was doing when he lost
There can be no recovery in such a case, and the judgment must be affirmed.
Affirmed.