Street v. Louisiana Pacific Corp.

829 So. 2d 450, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2755, 2002 WL 31060659
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 18, 2002
DocketNos. 36,352-CA, 36,353-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 829 So. 2d 450 (Street v. Louisiana Pacific Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Street v. Louisiana Pacific Corp., 829 So. 2d 450, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2755, 2002 WL 31060659 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

h CARAWAY, J.

The surviving spouse and children of an electrocution victim appeal the trial court’s allocation of fault among the victim and the municipality which provided the electrical utility. The defendant answers the appeal, urging that La. R.S. 9:2800.10 should apply retroactively to absolve its liability because of the decedent’s alleged criminal conduct at the time of his death. The defendant also asserts that the award for damages was abusively high. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

Johnny T. Street (“Street”) was electrocuted at Louisiana Pacific Corp. (“LP”)’s paper mill on January 8, 1995, after climbing up the plant’s electrical substation with a ladder to allegedly salvage copper wire. Street worked at the Winnfield mill for more than twenty years. He operated heavy equipment used for moving logs from the front of the mill to the old plywood plant at the back. The plywood plant fell into disuse before LP purchased the mill and was used only for storing logs. Some years earlier, when the plywood plant was operational, a subcontractor constructed the electrical substation to service the plywood plant.

The City of Winnfield (“City”) operates its own electric utility and owns the electric distribution lines that feed into the three-phase substation. In 1992, the May- or of Winnfield called the plant manager and told him the City wanted the transformers from the substation, as they were no longer needed to service the unused plywood plant. The plant manager told the mayor it was okay to send a crew for them. The mayor instructed the public | j>works superintendent to retrieve the transformers, who in turn dispatched a five man crew to do the job.

The substation had been protected by a fence with warning signs (“Danger High Voltage” “Danger Keep Out”) and a locked gate. It was established at trial that the fence was in place when the City’s crew arrived to disconnect the transformers. In addition to taking the transformers, the crew also took the fence and the warning signs, thereby exposing the entire substation structure. The plaintiffs’ evidence showed that even without the transformers, the substation was not disabled because the switches remained. The City’s work crew did not de-energize the 13,800 volt line leading to the substation; neither did LP request that the City de-energize the line. The electrical line leading from the substation to the plywood plant was [454]*454de-energized after the removal of the transformers.

About a year later, in September, 1993, the plywood plant burned to the ground in a three day long fire. Thereafter, LP employees began a company-directed salvaging operation for the plant rubble. LP sold the salvageable material'to a scrap metal company. The electrical line from the substation to the plant was removed. The salvaging operations were completed several months before the accident.

On Sunday morning, January 8, 1995, Street drove to the mill and parked his truck near the guard shack in front. LP’s security guard testified that seeing Street at the mill on Sunday was not unusual, and that other employees went by the plant on weekends. After they exchanged a few words, the guard left to make his rounds. When he returned, Street’s truck |3was gone. He did not know whether Street was elsewhere on the mill property, but noted that since the fire, the back part of the property including the old plywood plant and substation was locked up.

Early that afternoon, the utility crew lineman investigating a power outage in a neighborhood near the plant discovered Street’s body hanging from the substation supports. The autopsy report indicated the cause of death as electrocution, noting “extensive burning of the left lateral chest and axillary area extending down on to the left abdomen, bilateral groin area and right upper leg in a diagonal fashion,” “burn like changes circumferentially about the waist,” and “a deep transverse burn like area on the lower aspect of the anteri- or left upper leg.” A videotape introduced as evidence revealed that Street had placed a ladder against the substation, and that bolt cutters and work gloves were lying on the ground. The video also showed the position of Street’s body after he was electrocuted approximately eleven feet above the ground. The substation is shown in the picture which is an Appendix to this opinion.

Street’s surviving spouse, Patricia Johnson Street (“Mrs.Street”), was his second wife. They were married in 1989. His previous marriage ended in divorce. Seven of Street’s nine biological children and Mrs. Street instituted suit against LP and the City. Shortly thereafter, the eighth child also filed suit, and the two proceedings were consolidated for trial. The remaining child never filed suit. One plaintiff claiming to be Street’s child was dismissed from the first suit after DNA evidence excluded Street as a candidate for paternity.

|4Mrs. Street testified concerning her husband’s salvaging of metal from the plant:

Q.... Did Mr. Street tell you what he was — he had planned to do that day after you left [for Sunday School]?
A. No, he wasn’t decided on what he was going to do.
Q. Okay. We know that he went to the LP yard—
A. Yes.
Q. —And that’s where this accident happened. Had he ever gone down to the LP yard on Sundays before?
A. Yes.
Q. And what would he go down there for?
A. Clean his machines.
Q. Would he ever go down there when he was off work just to visit with some of the other employees down there?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you aware before this accident, or was there any time that he [455]*455ever scavenged or salvaged wire, that sort of thing?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. When he had last — how were you aware that he had done that in the past?
A. Because I had gone with him when he — he would bring it home and strip it down, and then he’d take it to Alexandria Iron in Alexandria.
* * *
Q. How many times before this accident had he come home with wire from Louisiana Pacific?
A. Three other occasions that I can remember.
* * *
Q. Do you know how much money he got for the wire for the three previous times?
A. I can estimate — a couple of times. I remember one time it was about five hundred and something, and two times, seven hundred.
Q. Each time?
A. Yes. And the last time that he — that he got it was, I think it was nine or something that like that.

Plaintiffs alleged that Street was salvaging metal from the abandoned electrical substation on LP property, and that LP and the City’s negligence in failing to de-energize the high voltage fine created an unreasonably dangerous situation. L.P.’s plant manager testified that employees were not authorized to salvage any material from the company’s property.

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Bluebook (online)
829 So. 2d 450, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2755, 2002 WL 31060659, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/street-v-louisiana-pacific-corp-lactapp-2002.