Sykes v. Village of Portland

159 N.W. 325, 193 Mich. 86, 1916 Mich. LEXIS 559
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 26, 1916
DocketDocket No. 102
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 159 N.W. 325 (Sykes v. Village of Portland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sykes v. Village of Portland, 159 N.W. 325, 193 Mich. 86, 1916 Mich. LEXIS 559 (Mich. 1916).

Opinion

Stone, C. J.

The plaintiff, a married woman, brings this action to recover damages against both defendants by reason of an injury which she claims she received on April 21, 1909, at the village of Portland by an electric shock which she received in trying to rescue her son, John Sykes, Jr., a boy between nine and ten years of age, from contact with a fallen village electric light wire which caused the boy’s death.

[88]*88Since the trial of the instant case, a former case, involving damages under the death act (3 Comp. Laws, § 10427 [3 Comp. Laws 1915, § 14577]) for the death of the son, and arising out of the same general facts, has been determined by this court, namely, Sykes v. Village of Portland, 177 Mich. 290 (143 N. W. 326). While many of the questions involved in this record are different from those raised and determined in that case, yet a reference to that case will aid in an understanding of this case.

The defendant the village of Portland, in Ionia county, has since 1896 maintained and operated an electric lighting plant, which is used not only for municipal lighting, but also furnishes lights to the inhabitants who desire to buy the same from the village. Prior to 1902 it had erected its wires along Brush street, an east and west street in said village. Crossing Brush street at substantially right angles are Kearney and Grant streets, and midway between these two streets an alley runs north from Brush street. About 50 feet east of the east line of this alley the village had a pole from which electric light wires were extended from the lights on Brush street to a pole on the west side of the alley, about 79 feet north of the north line of Brush street. This latter pole contained a transformer, or step-down, which lessened the current for use at two houses situated on Grant street respectively northwest and southwest from the transformer. These conditions existed when, in 1902, the Citizens’ Telephone Company (the other defendant herein) was granted a franchise by the village of Portland to erect its poles and maintain them with necessary wires, etc., for an electric telephone system. Subsequently the said telephone company erected poles on the streets and alleys of Portland, including a line running north and south on the alley in question, also a line running diagonally across Brush street, and to a point in the [89]*89alley about 62 feet north of the north line of Brush street. The relative situation of the poles and wires at the time of the accident which formed the basis of this action is shown by the diagram appearing in the opinion in the case in 177 Mich., above referred to.

On the 21st day of April, 1909, plaintiffs said son was passing along Brush street, and in some manner came in contact with the fallen village electric light wire which ordinarily passed from the pole about 50 feet east of the alley on Brush street to the transformer pole on the west side of the alley. As a result of this contact the boy was killed. The immediate cause of the condition of the wire is stated in the declaration in the instant case as follows:

“That afterward, to wit, on the 21st day of April, 1909, while said poles of the Citizens’ Telephone Company were so insecurely fastened, and were without support, or guy wires or otherwise, and when its uninsulated wires were sagging and in close proximity to the highly charged, poorly insulated electrical wires of the village of Portland, and when no guards of any kind had been provided by either of the said defendants to keep said wires from coming in contact with each other, and when the said wires of the village of Portland so uninsulated and heavily charged with electricity were running diagonally across said alley west of the property owned by the said Flowers in the village of Portland, close to and underneath the wires of the Citizens’ Telephone Company, and while a strong wind was blowing, causing the said corner pole of the said Citizens’ Telephone Company to sway, and its wires to sag and strike said heavily charged electrical wires of the village of Portland, where its wires were uninsulated, and where they crossed said alley between Kearney and Grant streets, at a point north of Brush street,_ and by reason of said contact, or weakness of the said heavily charged electrical wires of the village of Portland, caused by previous contact with the said Citizens’ Telephone Company’s wires, one of said heavily charged wires of the village of Portland burnt off or broke off, and fell to the ground, and by reason of [90]*90such falling hung from the aforesaid pole of the village of Portland standing on Brush street, to which one end of said wire was joined to the pole, and the free broken end extended across a portion of the ground, the part of the street used as a sidewalk, and across the path of pedestrians who walked along the north side of Brush street, and said wire hung then and there for a long time from said pole charged in a dangerous and unsafe manner, to wit, charged with 2,000 volts.”

No one saw the boy at the time he came in contact with the wire. When found he was in a little path about six feet from the electric light pole on Brush street, from whence the wires led to the transformer pole. There was no sidewalk on the street at that point, but a worn foot path where people passed between the pole and the lot line. The accident occurred about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The averments of the declaration as to the immediate circumstances attending the injury, the conduct of the plaintiff, and the consequences following, are set forth as follows:

“That when the said John Sykes, Jr., came in contact with the said wire, he fell to the ground upon his back, with said wire lying across his hand, his feet resting in the path, or sidewalk so called, and his head and body extending to the southwest, and while he was in this position, the plaintiff in this case, who is the mother of the said John Sykes, Jr., was notified that her son was lying on the ground and burning up; that at that time she was at her home, which was from six to eight rods from the place where the boy lay; that she ran from the house in great haste and excitement, and discovered him lying, as above indicated, on his back on the north side of Brush street in the village of Portland; that she feared for his life ; that while he was so lying on his back, his eyes and mouth moving, a fire was apparently burning in his hand, and he was apparently alive, and she thought the boy was still alive, and that he was unable to get up; that she believed that she could save the boy’s life; that she then and there grabbed him, asked him to get [91]

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Bluebook (online)
159 N.W. 325, 193 Mich. 86, 1916 Mich. LEXIS 559, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sykes-v-village-of-portland-mich-1916.