Texas Utilities Electric Co. Ex Rel. Texas Power & Light Division v. Gold Kist, Inc.

817 S.W.2d 749, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 2336, 1991 WL 186885
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 19, 1991
Docket11-89-241-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 817 S.W.2d 749 (Texas Utilities Electric Co. Ex Rel. Texas Power & Light Division v. Gold Kist, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas Utilities Electric Co. Ex Rel. Texas Power & Light Division v. Gold Kist, Inc., 817 S.W.2d 749, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 2336, 1991 WL 186885 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

OPINION

ARNOT, Justice.

Gold Kist, Inc., Durham Pecan Company, *752 Inc., 1 and Columbian Peanut Company sued Higginbotham Bros. & Co. and Texas Utilities Electric Company (TP & L) 2 for damages to their peanuts and pecans resulting from a fire. A Higginbotham truck hit a guy wire attached to TP & L’s pole causing the electrical transmission lines to vibrate and arc. The lines separated, falling across a warehouse where the produce was stored; and the arcing lines ignited the building. The three plaintiffs additionally sued Van-Walls Urethane Contractors, Inc., who installed insulation in Durham’s cold storage building under a products defect theory. Although served, Van-Walls did not appear. The jury found that Higginbotham and TP & L were each 50 percent negligent and awarded damages. Prior to trial, Higginbotham settled with the plaintiffs under “Mary Carter” agreements. The trial court entered judgment against both Higginbotham and TP & L, jointly and severally. TP & L appeals. The judgment is modified and, as modified, affirmed.

In its first two points of error, TP & L argues that the trial court erred by submitting an instruction to the jury defining TP & L’s duty in handling electricity as one of “high degree of care.” In the charge to the jury, the trial court submitted the following definitions:

“Negligence” when used with respect to the conduct of Texas Power and Light Co. means failure to use a high degree of care, that is, failing to do that which a very cautious, competent, and prudent electric utility would have done under the same or similar circumstances or doing that which a very cautious, competent, and prudent electric utility would not have done under the same or similar circumstances.
“High degree of care” means that degree of care that would be used by a very cautious, competent, and prudent electric utility under the same or similar circumstances.

TP & L objected to the above negligence definition, urging that it imposed a higher duty than required by law.

The issue before us is what standard of care, “ordinary” or “high degree,” is to be used with regard to alleged negligence in the use of electricity. This issue was addressed by the court in Wendell v. Central Power and Light Company, 677 S.W.2d 610 (Tex.App. — Corpus Christi 1984, writ ref’d n.r.e.). In that case, the trial court refused Wendell’s tendered instruction imposing a higher than ordinary care standard on the appellee, a utility company. Justice Gonzales, writing for the court, examined the proper standard to be used, stating:

The Texas Commission of Appeals, in an opinion from which the language of the requested instruction is drawn, said:
[T]he duty is imposed, in a case like this, not only to warn, but to use at least ordinary care to have the premises in a reasonably safe condition; the degree of care required must be commensurate with the danger. (Emphasis in original)
* * * * * *
A company maintaining electrical wires over which a high voltage of electricity is conveyed, rendering them highly dangerous to others, is under the duty of using the necessary care and prudence at places where others may have the right to go, either for work, business, or pleasure, to prevent injury.

West Texas Utilities v. Renner, 53 S.W.2d 451, 453, 454 (Tex.Comm’n App. 1932, holding approved). However, this “commensurate with the danger” standard does not impose a higher duty of care, it merely more fully defines what is ordinary care under the facts presented. In fact, the Court in Renner, set forth that:

[T]he meaning of the common-law rule of ordinary care is elastic enough to meet all emergencies; the amount of *753 care depends upon the exigency confronted. It may require one thing to be done at one place, and something else at another place; the degree of care must be such as a person of ordinary prudence would exercise under like circumstances.
Id. at 453-454.
We believe that the concept of ordinary care is sufficient in this case and the instruction was properly denied.

We think that the proper resolution of this issue in the case before us was stated by the court in Wendell when it said, “However, this ‘commensurate with the danger’ standard does not impose a higher duty of care, it merely more fully defines what is ordinary care under the facts presented” and by the court in West Texas Utilities Co. v. Renner, 53 S.W.2d 451 (Tex.Comm’n App.1932, holding approved), when it said, “[T]he meaning of the common-law rule of ordinary care is elastic enough to meet all emergencies; the amount of care depends upon the exigency confronted.”

As authority for the use of a “high degree of care” standard, appellees urge that the submitted charge is taken from the suggested form found in 1 STATE BAR OP TEXAS, TEXAS PATTERN JURY CHARGES PJC 2.02 (1987) and is mandated by Robert R. Walker v. Burgdorf, 150 Tex. 603, 244 S.W.2d 506 (1951). In Burg-dorf, workers at a filling station were draining the gasoline from the tank of a truck and washing the drained fuel with a water hose into a storm gutter. John Shaw, a customer of the filling station, came to observe the work. When Shaw lit a cigarette, the workers advised him to be careful around the draining fuel. Shaw insisted that water and gasoline would not burn and, to prove his point, threw the lit match into the stream. He disproved his theory. The Court of Civil Appeals in Robert R. Walker v. Kenosha Auto Transport Co., 239 S.W.2d 174 (Tex.Civ.App. — Texar-kana), reversed, 150 Tex. 603, 244 S.W.2d 506 (1951), held that Shaw’s action was a new and intervening independent cause that could not have been reasonably foreseen or anticipated, thereby superseding any negligence by Burgdorf’s workers. The Supreme Court in Robert R. Walker v. Burgdorf, supra, disagreed, holding that Shaw's action was concurrent negligence.

In discussing the aspects of concurrent negligence, the Court, in dicta, said:

[T]he filling station business is a hazardous one, requiring the utmost care in the handling of oils and high explosives.... From those who handle explosives, combustible gases, gasoline, petroleum, electricity, and similar dangerous commodities, the law exacts a duty to protect the public which is proportionate to and commensurate with the dangers involved.

We do not agree with appellees’ contention that the Court in Burgdorf mandates the use of a high degree of care standard in cases involving electricity.

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Bluebook (online)
817 S.W.2d 749, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 2336, 1991 WL 186885, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-utilities-electric-co-ex-rel-texas-power-light-division-v-gold-texapp-1991.