Jamerson v. Witt

332 P.2d 1054, 215 Or. 227, 1958 Ore. LEXIS 364
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 17, 1958
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 332 P.2d 1054 (Jamerson v. Witt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jamerson v. Witt, 332 P.2d 1054, 215 Or. 227, 1958 Ore. LEXIS 364 (Or. 1958).

Opinions

[229]*229ROSSMAN, J.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff, administratrix of the estate of W. T. Jamerson, deceased, from a judgment which the circuit court entered after it had sustained motions made by each of the two defendants for orders of involuntary nonsuit. The action was instituted under OES 30.010 through 30.100, our wrongful death statute. Jamerson, upon whose death this action is founded, lost his life by electrocution June 7, 1954. Defendant Maud A. Witt is the widow of Thomas E. Witt, and the executrix of that decedent’s estate. The other defendant-respondent is Lane County Electric Co-operative, Incorporated, to which we will refer as the Co-operative. Witt met his death concurrently with Jamerson and also by electrocution. One of the two decedents, possibly both, was or were attempting to raise a television mast with an attached antenna when it came in contact with transmission wires overhead which the Co-operative had installed in 1940. Witt accepted engagements to install television aerials at the close of his day’s regular employment, and, pursuant to a request of the Jamersons, was in their yard attempting to install an aerial for them when he and Jamerson were overtaken by death.

The motion for an order of involuntary nonsuit made by each of the defendants contended that (1) the record contained no proof of negligence on the part of either defendant, and (2) the evidence established contributory negligence by the plaintiff’s decedent.

The plaintiff-appellant presents two assignments of error. One charges that error was committed when judgment of involuntary nonsuit was entered in favor of the Co-operative, and the other is predicated upon [230]*230a similar judgment which was entered in favor of defendant Witt.

No one saw death strike. The manner in which ultimate fortune struck down the two men is left largely to conjecture. It was stipulated, however, that electrocution was the cause of both deaths.

The Jamersons owned a home on the upper McKenzie highway and had lived there for 23 years. In 1940 they granted to the Co-operative an easement whereby that concern installed a power line across the rear of their property consisting of six wires strung from two poles, one of which stood on the north line of the property and the other on the south line. The wires spanned a distance of 434.2 feet and ran east and west. The upper three wires, if we understand the testimony correctly, carried 7,200 volts each. The other three wires were five feet lower on the poles and each carried 110 volts. Voltage as low as 25 volts can cause death. The wires were not insulated.

The Jamersons had owned a television set which gave them unsatisfactory reception. The decedent Jamerson called upon the aforementioned Thomas R. Witt, and on June 7, 1954, at 4:15 p. m., Witt came to the Jamerson home. He had never been there before. Mrs. Witt accompanied him.

After the Witts entered the Jamerson home, Mr. Witt, according to Mrs. Jamerson, “turned on the TV and seen the reception and said, Well, I can put v. an antenna and find a better location to get better reception than that.’ ” Presently the two men left the house and entered the back yard. Witt came to the Jamersons in a truck in which he brought a television mast, an antenna, a field test meter and tools. He parked the truck on a gravel road which led from the highway to the Jamerson home. After the two men [231]*231had gone outdoors and their wives had engaged in conversation for some time, Mrs. Witt, so Mrs. Jamerson declared,

“got v. and said, Well, I wonder what in the world is the matter,’ and she went out and looked out the bathroom window, and I got v. and went out and looked in the kitchen window. Well, I saw Mr. Witts was there working by the pickup and he was working with the antenna.
“Q What was he doing, do you know?
“A I don’t know. He was working around the bars on the antenna. I couldn’t say just what he was doing.
“Q Where was Mr. Jamerson in relation to where Mr. Witt was standing?
“A My husband was standing, ch. right on this side of Mr. Witts (indicating).
“Q How many feet away, approximately?
“A About four feet away, I would say three or four feet.
“Q What was he doing?
“A Wasn’t doing anything that I know of.
“Q That’s all you saw at that time, and you went back and sat down?
“A I went back and sat at the piano stool and Mrs. Witts came back and sat in her chair, and then I played another piece.”

The foregoing represents the last time that the two men were seen alive.

After the two women had had further conversation, the following, according to Mrs. Jamerson, occurred:

“all at once she jumped out of her chair again. I wondered what in the world was wrong again. Then she went to the bathroom window again and that’s when she said, ‘My goodness! Something is wrong, they are both lying on the ground.’ And [232]*232then I turned around and went out and looked out of the kitchen window. I could see that they were lying there so I ran out to them, * *

Jamerson’s body lay with the head toward the south and the feet toward the north. The wires, it will be recalled, ran east and west. Witt’s body lay with the head toward the north. The feet of the two men were very near each other. If a line descended to the ground from the overhead wires it would have been within about two feet of Witt’s head and, since Jamerson’s feet were close to Witt’s his body lay 12 feet or so from the point where the line would have touched the ground. The antenna was between the feet of the two bodies. Mrs. Jamerson testified, “My husband’s foot was over the antenna,” and added that the latter was somewhat “between the two bodies.” The mast, as it lay in its fallen position, took a northerly and southerly position. Its base was near a newly dug hole which had been prepared to receive it.

The television mast with its attached antenna was 28 feet and 10 inches long. The antenna was made of aluminum and consisted in part of crossarms. The mast was of the telescopic kind and was made of steel.

A witness for the plaintiff, John Laurila, Jr., who was an engineer, prepared a plat of the Jamerson property which shows the home, the transmission lines and all other features which the witnesses mentioned. Laurila swore that he measured the distance between the lowest wires and the ground and found it to be 23.20 feet. It is so marked upon his plat which became plaintiff’s Exhibit A. He made the measurements November 9, 1955. The fatalities occurred June 7, 1954. No one questions the accuracy of Mr. Laurila’s measurement, but Mrs. Jamerson and one of her witnesses, Chester Peden, expressed beliefs [233]*233that the wires seemed higher after the causalties than on the day of their occurrence. Mrs. Jamerson thought the power lines at the time of the deaths “were less than 20 feet” above the ground and that later they were raised. She added, “I couldn’t say when they did it” and conceded that she saw no work done on the wires at any time after the accident. Mr.

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Jamerson v. Witt
332 P.2d 1054 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1958)

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Bluebook (online)
332 P.2d 1054, 215 Or. 227, 1958 Ore. LEXIS 364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jamerson-v-witt-or-1958.