Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. v. Busha

1936 OK 714, 66 P.2d 64, 179 Okla. 505, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 763
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 10, 1936
DocketNo. 25725.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1936 OK 714 (Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. v. Busha) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. v. Busha, 1936 OK 714, 66 P.2d 64, 179 Okla. 505, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 763 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This case represents an appeal from the district court of Oklahoma county. It was brought by Abbie D. Busha, for the benefit of herself and children, against the Oklahoma G.as & Electric Company, a corporation, to ««cover damages for the wrongful death of (Busha, resulting from an injury suffered by him in the course of his employment. Judgment was for $15,000. The parties will be referred to as they appear in the lower court.

The following facts are alleged by plaintiff in her first amended petition as the basis of her right to recover: The deceased was an electrician’s helper in the employ of defendant company. He was ordered by defendant to go, and went, into a certain room known as the “bus room” at defendant’s power plant where he was employed, to see that the painter who was painting therein would not come in contact with any of the electric appliances in the room. While there performing his duties a high voltage of electricity arced from the machinery, equipment, devices, and apparatus in the room and struck his body causing him to be severely burned, and resulting in his death. The “bus room” contained open, exposed and uninsulated electrical appliances and equipment carrying and heavily charged with electricity which made said room a place of extraordinary hazard and danger. Defendant was negligent in failing to provide deceased a reasonably safe place to work, and in failing to use the proper degree of skill required in the manufacture and handling of electricity, and in having in the “bus room” open, exposed and uninsulated electrical appliances and equipment, and in failing to provide safety devices for the protection of deceased, and in failing to cut off the electric current passing through said equipment in said “bus room” ; and such negligence was the proximate cause of decedent’s death.

The following additional facts and acts of negligence are alleged in plaintiff’s second amended petition: On the wall of the “bus room” were oil switches and fuses of various kinds. The voltage of electric current pass *506 ing through the equipment in the room was 220 volts for plant lighting and 2,300 volts for power, and portions of said equipment carrying the 2,300 volt current were open and exposed and not insulated. The room w.as not ventilated and very hot and the paint used by the painter gave off a highly explosive gas. Deceased in the performance of his duties had just cleaned off a shelf located on another wall of the room so that the painter might paint it, when a violent explosion and Rash occurred in such a manner that deceased received severe burns from which he died. The electric current had arced and ignited the gas, resulting in said explosion and flash. Defendant had so constructed the “‘bus room” as to make it a place of great danger and extraordinary hazard, and had failed to reduce the danger and hazard by enclosing and insulating the open, exposed and uninsulated equipment, and in this was negligent. Deceased had no knowledge of the great danger incident to the painting operations in the “bus room,” and defendant failed to warn him of same, and in this was negligentand all the negligence of defendant was the proximate cause of decedent’s death.

Defendant’s answer was a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence and assumption of risk on the part of the deceased.

The trial resulted in a special finding of the jury that an electric flash or short circuit was the direct and immediate cause of the burns on the body of Oliver Busha which caused his death, and that the electric flash or short circuit was caused by the test lamp being knocked into the p-anel board in contact with the fuses with the dust rag, accidentally, and in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff.

Before a plaintiff is entitled to recover in this kind of a case, three essential elements must appear: First, the existence of a duty on the part of the master to protect the servant; second, the failure of the master to perform this duty; and, third, injury to the servant resulting from such failure. There is ample evidence in the record in this case to establish all three elements, from which reasonable men might draw different conclusions, and it was proper to submit these three questions, together with the questions of contributory negligence and assumption of risk, to the jury under proper instructions. The jury under proper instructions, by its general verdict, found that the deceased was not guilty of assuming the risk or of contributory negligence. There was no substantial error committed in the admission and exclusion of evidence. It is essential to pass on the following questions raised by this record: (1) Was the general verdict in conflict with the special findings of the jury? (2) Was it reversible error on the part of the court to fail and refuse to include a “foreseen or expected result” clause in its instruction on proximate cause? 13) Was it reversible error on the part of the court to fail and refuse to include in its instruction on burden of proof, a clause that plaintiff shall not be entitled to recover on a conjecture, surmise, speculation or suspicion that decedent’s death was due to the alleged negligence of defendant? (4) Was it reversible error on the part of the court to give the instruction given on assumption of risk and to fail to give a different instruction thereon?

1. Was the general verdict in conflict with the special finding of fact of the jury? The jury made a special finding that an electric flash or short circuit was the direct and immediate cause of the burns on the body of deceased which caused his death, and that the electric flash or short circuit was caused by the test lamp being knocked into the panel board in contact with the fuses with the dust rag, accidentally, and returned a general verdict for the plaintiff on which judgment was rendered. Defendant earnestly contends this constitutes a conflict that cannot be reconciled.

The evidence discloses the dimensions of the “bus room” to be about ll'xl2' with S' ceiling. On the south side of the east wall of the room, where the electric current arced, were the 2,300 volt circuit fuses on a panel board referred to in the special finding. On the east side of the south wall was located a shelf on which was kept the test lamp referred to in the special finding. Eli Bunch, the painter who was with deceased when the electric current arced, testified that he was painting the north wall of the room, and deceased was behind him; that ho did not look around and did not see deceased or what he w,as doing; that deceased asked something about painting the shelf and said he was going to clean it off; that he heard deceased dusting with a rag and heard him stop, and in about 30 seconds thereafter the explosion occurred. E. O. Fisher, chief electrician at the plant where the explosion occurred, testified that soon after the explosion he with others examined the “bus room,” .and in addition to noticing the damaged fuses, they found pieces of a test light with the wire and head from which the *507 globe and socket bad been blown to pieces, and tbey collected tbe pieces. All evidence introduced by plaintiff as to tbe burns received by deceased was to tbe effect that tbey were caused by a gas explosion, while all tbe evidence of defendant as to tbe 'burns was to the effect that tbey were caused by tbe electric are or flash-over, and that the explosion beard was tbe arcing of tbe electric current and that there was no gas explosion.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Dutcher v. Lewis
221 N.W.2d 755 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1974)
Skelly Oil Co. v. Funk
1946 OK 310 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1946)
Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp. v. Jamison, Adm'r
1946 OK 146 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1946)
Garrett v. Kennedy
1943 OK 399 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1943)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 714, 66 P.2d 64, 179 Okla. 505, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 763, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-gas-electric-co-v-busha-okla-1936.