138 Ky. 109 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1910
Opinion oe the Court by
Commissioner — Affirming.
Suing by Ms' next friend, Donald Thompson, an infant four years of age, brought this action against
'Omitting those matters which it is unnecessary to set forth, the petition is as follows: “That on or about the 4th day of September, 1909, and for a long time previous thereto, defendant, its servants and agents, with gross negligence maintained a telegraph pole and a wire cable connected therewith in the sidewalk of Twenty-sixth street, near Dumesnil ■ street, in the city of Louisville, in such a dangerous and defective condition as to endanger the lives and persons of pedestrians on said Twenty-sixth street, and especially the lives and persons of small children. That said dangerous and defective condition of said pole and cable attachment consisted in the exposure of the strands of prongs of said cable, a few feet above said sidewalk, in such a manner as to form a highly dangerous trap for the limbs of persons passing near thereto. That said exposure continued for an unreasonable time before the said 4th day of September, 1909. That as a result of said gross negligence, in exposing the dangerous part of said cable, plaintiff, Donald Thompson, an infant four years of age, while on the sidewalk in front of the house where he was staying, became caught therein by the index finger of his left hand, and said finger was jerked off the hand of plaintiff, causing him to suffer great mental and physical pain, to become deformed in his left hand, and to become permanently
Afterwards the petition was amended as follows: “Comes plaintiff, by counsel, and for amendment to his original petition herein says that the danger of which he complains in his original petition consisted in the exposure of the strands on the cable; that his hand was caught in the wire by playing around and upon the lowest step of the telephone pole complained of, by reaching his hand out and placing it near the exposed strands on the cable, and by stepping off from the lowest step on said pole to the sidewalk; that in thus stepping off Mis finger caught between the strands of wire and was jerked off and held in the cable.”
The amended and substituted petition is- as follows: “That on or about the 4th day of September, 1909, and for a long time previous thereto, defendant, its servants and agents, with gross negligence maintained a telegraph pole and a wire cable connected therewith in the sidewalk of Twenty-sixth street, near Dumesnii street, in said city of Louisville, in such a dangerous and defective condition as to endanger the lives and persons of pedestrians- on said Twenty-sixth street, and especially the lives and persons of small children. That said dangerous and defective condition of said pole and cable attachment consisted in the exposure of the strands or prongs of said cable a few feet above said sidewalk, in such a manner as to form a highly dangerous trap for the limbs of persons passing near thereto. That the danger of said situation was increased for little children, and was made an attractive and dangerous trap for little children, by the fact that the lowest step on
Thereafter .the following amendment to the amended and substituted petition was filed: “For amendment to his amended and substituted petition herein, plaintiff says: That Exhibit A, filed herewith and made a part hereof, is a true and correct representation of the pole and cable attachment where he was injured. That at the time he was injured the free end of the cable where it is double, marked 1, was not wrapped as shown in. said Exhibit A, but was exposed a few feet above the sidewalk, with prongs projecting so as to be a menace to pedestrians walking along said sidewalk. That it was in said exposed
Accompanying the last amendment are two photographic exhibits. These exhibits show that the injury occurred on the guy wire which appellee had constructed near one of its poles for the purpose of supporting and reinforcing the same. The guy wire is two small cables, consisting of two or more rather thick wires. These are tied to the pole near the top and drawn at an agle to the ground. There they are passed through a hole in a stake, thus forming a loop. Then the cable is drawn up a few feet, whefre it is tied. The complaint in this case is that the ends of the wires were not tied or inclosed in any manner, but were left exposed; that the child climbed up the step on the bottom of the pole, and reached out its hand, when it came in contact with a prong. As he stepped down, his finger was jerked off.
The real question in this case is whether or not the pole, with the guy wire attached and prongs exposed, constituted an attractive or dangerous trap for little children. The tendency of the more recent cases is to restrict, rather than to .enlarge, the principle laid down in what are called the ‘ ‘ turntable cases, ’ ’ and to hold that the defendant is not liable unless he knows, or ought in the exercise of reasonable care to know, that his structure was and is alluring to children and
In the case before us the exposure of the prongs of the guy wire did not render it dangerous, unless used in a manner which could not be anticipated. If the guy wire had been charged with electricity, and had been placed so near the ground that mere contact with it was probable and would certainly result in injury, a different question would be presented. There is always danger attending every act of a child when he attempts to climb anything. The limbs of a tree break, and he may fall, yet it will not be contended that the owner must see that the lower limbs of the tree are sufficiently strong to maintain the weight of any child who may take a notion to climb the tree. Then, too, a child may slide down a tree and come in contact with a jagged edge of a broken limb. It cannot be contended that- the owner is responsible because he failed to see to it that the place where the' limb broke was made perfectly smooth. The danger to the child was not inherent in the guy wire, but the child was injured because of the fact that he climbed the pole and his foot slipped. In our opinion, it was an unfortunate accident, and one
Judgment affirmed.