Fort Worth Light & Power Co. v. Moore

55 Tex. Civ. App. 157
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 29, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 55 Tex. Civ. App. 157 (Fort Worth Light & Power Co. v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fort Worth Light & Power Co. v. Moore, 55 Tex. Civ. App. 157 (Tex. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

HODGES, Associate Justice.

John Moore, plaintiff in the court below, filed this suit in the District Court of Tarrant County against the Fort Worth Light & Power Company, the Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Company, and the city of Fort Worth, claiming damages in the sum of $25,000 for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by him in July, 1907, while in the service of the Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Company, and occasioned by certain concurrent acts of negligence on the part of all the defendants. The trial resulted in a verdict in favor of the appellee for the sum of $4,000, which the jury apportioned as follows: $3,000 against the appellant, the Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Company, and $1,000 against the Fort Worth Light & Power Company. Separate appeal bonds were executed by each of these defendants, and assignments of error filed in the trial court; but the telephone company alone has filed briefs in this court.

The- issue upon which we think this case should be disposed of is presented in the first assignment of error, in which the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict and judgment is questioned. It [159]*159is claimed by the appellant telephone company that the testimony of the appellee as to the conditions under which the accident occurred discloses a situation showing that he assumed the risk of the danger he encountered, and the consequent injuries therefrom. The testimony shows that on the morning of July 19, 1907, the appellee and another employe of the telephone company were sent out to put in a telephone near where this injury occurred. After they had ascertained that the occupants of the premises wanted the telephone, the appellee, of his own accord, began to ascend one of the telephone poles, for the purpose of making an inspection in connection with the work in which he was then engaged. This pole stood near the crossing of one of the streets in the city of Fort Worth. There were many telephone wires running east and west strung to this pole. Iron spikes were driven into the north and south sides of the pole for use in climbing it. The city of Fort Worth had two wires on the same side of the same street, also running east and west. The city wires were suspended from city poles, but were not attached to the telephone pole; they hung about twenty-five feet above the ground and below the telephone wires; one of the city wires passing on the north side of the telephone pole, and the other on the south side. A few inches outside of the city wires and at the same level two light and power wires which did not belong to the defendant light and power company also straddled the telephone pole, running parallel with the city wires. These light and power wires were suspended from the same pole which carried the city wires, but were not attached to the telephone pole. There was testimony from which the jury were justified in concluding that the city wire on the north side of the telephone pole was in contact with one of the iron steps about twenty-five feet above the ground, and that this contact had existed for some time ■before the accident, though how long it is not clear. The appellee ascended the telephone pole till he got about twenty-five feet from the ground, and had to swing himself partially to the south side in order to avoid contact with the city’s north wire, the wire on the south side of the pole being farther off than on the other, and more easily permitting the passage of his body without contact. In detailing the circumstances immediately attending the accident, the appellee testified: “I was going up this pole to test a pair of wires to connect this phone that we were going to put in. When this occurred "I had not reached the place where I was going to do the work. I was just ordinarily like a man climbing a pole—one foot up, reaching up with my hand, you know, and climbing up. It was the right hand that I think came in contact with the live wire, and the left hand was down about eighteen inches on the next step below on the opposite side, against a messenger wire—the support of the cable, it is a heavy wire to hold up one of those cables, which is connected with the ground; and it was my right hand that grasped the other side or the opposite side. With my left hand I had hold of a step also, but this messenger wire was tied around the pole just above this step. I was holding to those steps to climb the pole. Those were the steps that were provided for that purpose. I didn’t succeed in grasping the step with my right hand before I was shocked. I could [160]*160not tell how I caught the wire, for just as I saw I had touched, you know—and that noise—and that is the last thing I remember. I don’t know whether I grasped it or what I done. I just reached up, and as I reached up I laid my hand on the step. This noise—I heard something like a bug passing my ear and I fell. ... I didn’t know there was any wire resting upon that step at all. In climbing the pole those wires that were hanging there—there were four of them, two on each side of the pole—I was going up and faced toward the pole this way, and the wire on this side lay up near the pole. Those two and the two on this side swung off farther from the pole. They were two of the city’s wires and two of the electric light wires. The electric light wires of the power company was on the extreme side. The city wires was the near ones. One city wire was on this side, and one on this side; and those on this side of the pole were swung off something like a foot or more, while this lay up close to the pole, tolerably close, something like three or four inches; I could see that from the ground before I went to ascend the pole. ¡Naturally, a man climbing a pole, where there are steps that way on one side of the pole he will throw himself around and swing and reach that way in order to put himself up between the wires in the most space where' he will keep himself as clear as much as possible, and that is the way I was; that was my position in going up this pole. When I went to pass up between the wires I swung myself around to the south side of the pole, and for that reason I could not see the step around here where I taken hold. . . . The messenger wire that the cable is on has got a connection to the ground, but it goes on probably a half mile before it gets to it, and before it gets to the office it has several connections to the ground. These connections are made to the ground all along. When I had hold of this step where the messenger wire was put just above it my finger went against this messenger which was connected with the ground; that was my left hand. My right hand went up and taken hold of this step, with this city incandescent wire lying against, or which was lying against the wire. The step I put my right hand on was on the north side of the pole, and the other one was on the south side. The Citizens’ wire was something like fifteen or eighteen inches away from the pole on each side.” The evidence from other sources tended to show that the city wire was in contact with the iron step on the north side of the pole, and that the insulation on that wire had worn off at the point of contact and thus permitted a current from it to be communicated to the step. It was also shown that the city did not use its wires during the daytime, but only for purposes of illumination at night, and on this particular occasion the current for that purpose from the city’s plant had been shut off and there was no danger from contact with this wire, unless charged from some other and unauthorized source. Those city wires were therefore during the daytime supposed to be harmless unless accidentally charged.

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Bluebook (online)
55 Tex. Civ. App. 157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fort-worth-light-power-co-v-moore-texapp-1909.