Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Sullivan

101 N.E. 401, 53 Ind. App. 239, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 184
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 4, 1913
DocketNo. 7,834
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 101 N.E. 401 (Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Sullivan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Sullivan, 101 N.E. 401, 53 Ind. App. 239, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 184 (Ind. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

Hottel, J.

— This is an action for personal injuries sustained by appellee while in the employ of appellant and alleged to have been caused by the escape of electricity from appellant’s high voltage wires. The complaint is in one paragraph and states in detail facts showing that appellant is a corporation engaged in the business of operating a system of street and interurban railroads; that for such purpose it produces, carries and stores electric currents; that a uniform supply along its various lines is maintained by stations and substations, located at points distant from its central power station; that on and prior to November 12, 1907, defendant conducted one of said substations at the town of Lafontaine, in Wabash County, Indiana; that plaintiff was employed as tender for said station, his duties being to clean and look after certain machines and switchboards therein; that a few days prior to said date the defendant for the purpose of making some changes and repairs at said station, placed a car upon a side track in close proximity thereto and equipped such car with a switchboard and necessary appliances to use temporarily as a substation; that an electrical current of 500 to 700 volts could be and was then being carried and conveyed by means of insulated wires in such a way that a person being in close proximity to such wires would not be shocked or injured; that a wire charged with voltage of anything above 1,000 volts insulated in the regular way was extremely dangerous to those near or about the same. “That the defendant was negligent and careless in placing said car at said point for said purpose in this, that the same was too small and of not sufficient height of ceiling to enable a person having charge thereof to perform his duties with reasonable safety under the circumstances; that it negligently and carelessly placed and equipped two insulated wires along [242]*242tbe ceiling of said car and connected tbe same at one end with its switchboard and equipment in said car, and at the other end with high tension wires carrying a voltage'of 3,000 to 3,500 volts, and so attached as to charge said wires in said car with said high voltage; that said wires were so placed as to be in close proximity to the head of the person who would perform the duties of tender in said car; that after its wires were so placed and connected the defendant negligently and carelessly ordered the plaintiff to enter and take charge of such car and to clean the machinery therein, and required him to be in such parts thereof as would bring his head in close proximity to said heavily charged wires, and needlessly and unnecessarily exposed him to great danger of life and limb by being burned and shocked by the electricity in said wires; that the defendant negligently and carelessly failed and neglected to use reasonable care to provide the plaintiff with a reasonably safe place to perform his duty as aforesaid, and negligently and carelessly equipped said car as aforesaid, and negligently and carelessly used said car for said purpose, the same being too small and too low for said purpose, and negligently and carelessly ordered, directed and required the plaintiff to clean said machinery and perform his duties in said car and in close proximity to said wires as aforesaid, and negligently and carelessly failed and neglected to notify or apprise plaintiff or give him any notice or warning whatever of the dangerous character of said wires and surroundings; that the plaintiff, in obedience to said order, and demand of defendant and in the line of his duty under said employment, did on November 9, 1907, enter said car and proceed with his duties as tender thereof, and while cleaning the machinery and appliances therein, where he was so ordered, directed and required to be, was then and there, by reason and on account of the said negligence and carelessness of the defendant, greatly burned, shocked and injured by said electric current.” The complaint contains the necessary averments [243]*243with, reference to appellant’s knowledge and appellee’s lack of knowledge of the manner of the equipment of the car and the dangers to which appellee was exposed by being required to work therein.

A demurrer to this complaint was overruled and the issues closed by a general denial. A trial by jury resulted in a verdict for appellee in the sum of $3,500, with which was filed answers to a number of interrogatories. A motion for a judgment on such answers and a motion for a new trial were each overruled and exceptions saved. The ruling on each of these motions is assigned as error and relied on for reversal.

1. The sufficiency of the complaint is not here questioned and it is conceded by appellant that “under the extreme rule” applied in this court there is evidence tending to support its allegations, but it is insisted that a part of this evidence was outside the issues, and that error was committed in its admission. One of appellee’s witnesses was asked the following question “I will ask you if this car of which I have described with the rotary in one end the transformers in the other is run up along the side of a regular relay station from which it receives the current of over 16,000 to 26,000 volts; what would be the modern and approved manner of equipping the car as to the end of the ear, for safety that wires should be brought in? * * * Tell which end of the car the wires should be brought in ? ” and the witness was permitted to answer: “The wires should come in the end of the car closest to the transformers.” Objections were made by appellant to this question which were overruled and exceptions properly saved. A motion was also made to strike out the evidence which was also overruled and exceptions saved. The complaint expressly avers that the “defendant negligently and carelessly placed and equipped two insulated wires along the ceiling of said car and connected the same at one end with its switchboard and equipment in said car, and at the other end with high [244]*244tension wires.” We think this averment entitled the appellee to any evidence that might tend to prove that appellant was careless and negligent in the placing of said high tension wires. It will also be observed from the averments of the complaint above set ont that it contains the general averment that the appellant “negligently and carelessly failed and neglected to use reasonable care to provide the plaintiff with a reasonably safe place to perform his duty.” Under this general averment, any evidence which would prove or tend to prove such lack of reasonable care was admissible. The evidence complained of tended to prove such lack of reasonable care, and was therefore within the issues.

2. Alleged error in giving and refusing certain instructions is next urged. We are here met with an earnest insistency by appellee that the instructions are not in the record and that any error predicated in the giving or refusal to give any of them is therefore unavailable on appeal. It is too well settled to need the citation of authority that, unless the instructions are brought into the record by one of the modes prescribed by statute, they will not be considered on appeal.

3. Appellee contends: (1) that the record fails to show a filing of the instructions; (2) that it is not shown that all the instructions given and refused are in the record.

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Bluebook (online)
101 N.E. 401, 53 Ind. App. 239, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-union-traction-co-v-sullivan-indctapp-1913.