68 Mo. App. 380 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1897
Plaintiff sued the defendant for damages resulting to her from the death of her husband, Charles E. Wray, who was killed at about 7:30 o’clock, on the night of September 7, 1895, by an electric current passing through his body,'while manipulating one of defendant’s street lamps, in the city of Joplin.
On a trial in the circuit court, plaintiff had' a verdict and judgment for $2,000 and defendant appealed.
Tbe lamps were what is known as the Thompson & Huston patent. The identical lamp accompanies the record and was before us in the very learned and exhaustive oral arguments, with which we were favored by counsel of both sides. The whole process attending the distribution of electricity, as well as the machinery of this and other electric lamps, was gone over in the trial and the evidence is now here before us in the record. It would be useless to give this in detail. The Thompson-Huston lamp differed from most other patterns — has, when completed, two cut-offs, or switches, one immediately on the top of the machinery part of the lamp, which is a mere “short circuit” switch, so called because it simply carries the current of electricity from the positive over to the negative wire, without entirely disconnecting the lamp machinery, and the other is a switch or cut-off in a headboard placed in the iron hood above the lamp machinery. The purpose of this latter switch is to entirely cut off the electrical current from the lamp machinery below, so that the lamp may be disconnected and removed without destroying the circuit and interfering with other lamps. This headboard, to which is attached the latter named switch, is only a few inches above the “short circuit” switch, and both are covered by the suspended iron hood, which is a truncated cone about two feet in diameter at its base and eighteen inches high. The course of the electrical current is into the lamp on one wire, and when the. circuit is complete, it passes down through the switch in the headboard, thence on through the lower switch into the lamp, down the sticks of carbon from the ends of which at the bottom of the lamp it jumps to the
When the trimmer, or lamp repairer, has to do with the electrical appliance, it is considered necessary for self-preservation to insulate himself from the earth, or otherwise, if he should be brought into ' contact with the earth and an electrical current, at the same time, the latter would pass through his body to the earth and produce a severe shock, and perhaps death, according to its intensity. This danger arises from the fact that the tendency of electricity is toward the. earth and it will always go there by the shortest and easiest route, or by the path of the least resistance. There is less resistance in the human body than in the electrical wire, and hence the current will take the former rather than the latter course, if the opportunity is offered; but if the body is kept insulated from the ground, then the current will not go that route. This insulation is effected by the trimmer’s use of a stepladder or board, on which he places himself, when working with the lamp. Wray had for that purpose a small wooden stool, with porcelain knobs for legs which he placed on the ground beneath the lamp and on which he was supposed to stand, when brought into contact with the lamp. This is considered a very effective and safe means of insulation.
Eighteen days before this accident occurred the upper switch or cut-off in the headboard got out of repair by reason of the burning out the point of contact where the positive wire attaches to the switch apparatus. 'The lineman (one Dinsmore, Wray’s half brother) discovered it; and he says that with the knowledge of the defendant’s superintendent, he repaired the lamp. In so doing he carried the wires down and attached them to the ears of the lamp proper,
When Wray’s body was taken up and examined, immediately after the accident, two, and only two, marks were found thereon — one on the ball of the right thumb, and another on the bottom of the heel of the left foot, indicating that the electrical current had entered at the right thumb and passed diagonally through the body, and into the ground at his left heel. A sheet-iron shield, that was used to protect the magnets and lamp machinery, was found pulled down and particles of paper or pasteboard there discovered, which indicated that he had been at work at the inside of the lamp machinery.
Again, in order to justify a verdict in plaintiff 's favor, the burden was on her to prove that the death of her husband was caused by the absence of the switch in the headboard. A careful scrutiny of the record discloses no .substantial evidence'to prove this important fact. Plaintiff’s theory is that when Wray lowered the lamp, he first took hold of the lever to the upper switch and threw it off, as he thought, so as to disconnect the lamp machinery beneath; but that, as it was out of order and useless, he failed to accomplish a cutoff and that he went to work on the belief that a complete disconnection had been effected. There is nothing in Wray’s conduct, at the time, that lends support to this contention. The two small boys (who were at the time within a few feet of the trimmer) testified that Wray placed his insulating stool on the ground beneath the lamp, and having set his feet thereon, proceeded to remove the shield inclosing the magnets and at the same time cautioned the boys to be careful and not touch the wires, as “there would be a flash and they would be killed.” Prom this evidence, it would seem that Wray knew that'the lamp was not taken out of the circuit and as the boys stood on the ground, he wisely cautioned them not to touch the lamp, for
The useless and discarded upper switch can not be classed as one of those defective appliances which, though out of order, the servant might think could, without immediate danger, be used with ordinary care. It was an instrumentality that could not be used at all and to rely on it for any purpose was a gross act of negligence on the part of the trimmer. The use of and reliance on said switch necessarily “threatened immediate injury,” and hence that line of cases of which Huhn v. R’y, 92 Mo. 440, is prominent, can not be successfully invoked to save plaintiff’s case.
The verdict in this case was the result, doubtless, of the undue exercise of a sympathy, which, though proper in its place, can not be allowed to interfere in the administration of the law, and to take money from one and give it to another in the face of well settled principles.
The judgment must be reversed.