Case Title: Spruill v. Yazoo Valley Oil Mill, Inc.

Citation: 317 So. 2d 410

Docket Number: 

State: mississippi

Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Date: 1975-10-13T00:00:00Z

Document:
317 So. 2d 410 (1975) John R. SPRUILL v. YAZOO VALLEY OIL MILL, INC. No. 48205. Supreme Court of Mississippi. August 11, 1975. As Amended on Denial of Rehearing October 13, 1975. Liston & Upshaw, Winona, Fraiser & Burgoon, Greenwood, for appellant. Satterfield, Shell, Williams & Buford, Michael S. Allred, Cary E. Bufkin, Jackson, Whittington & Brock, Greenwood, for appellee. Before RODGERS, ROBERTSON and BROOM, JJ. ROBERTSON, Justice: John R. Spruill, individually and on behalf of the other heirs of Bobby Ray *411 Spruill, deceased, appeals from the order of the Circuit Court of Leflore County, Mississippi, sustaining a general demurrer to the third amended declaration of the plaintiff. Spruill brought suit against Yazoo Valley Oil Mill, Inc., for damages because of the death of his son, Bobby Ray Spruill, who died of injuries received when, as an employee of Greenwood Utilities, he was attempting to restore electrical current to the plant of Yazoo. Yazoo was engaged in the business of processing soybeans into oil and other related products for sale to the general public. It purchased electricity from Greenwood Utilities, which was owned and operated by the City of Greenwood. In order to furnish electricity to Yazoo, Greenwood Utilities installed three 100 KVA overhead distribution transformers in a delta bank on the property of Yazoo about July 29, 1964. About September 1, 1967, Yazoo purchased from Greenwood Utilities all electrical facilities located on Yazoo's premises "which theretofore had been utilized by Greenwood Utilities to serve the Defendant's plant with electrical current, including the transformers hereinabove mentioned." Contemporaneously with this purchase, Yazoo and Greenwood Utilities entered into an "Agreement for Electric Service" under the terms of which Yazoo as "Customer" requested and Greenwood as "Utilities" agreed to serve Customer's needs for electricity to its Greenwood plant. Paragraphs 4, 5 and 12 of the agreement provide: In the second amended declaration, which was made a part of the third amended declaration, Plaintiff alleged that prior to September 8, 1969, Yazoo contracted with Bowman and Bowman, electrical engineers of Greenwood, Mississippi, to test the three transformers for moisture content. Yazoo requested Greenwood Utilities to take samples of the insulating oil from the three transformers and deliver these samples to Bowman and Bowman for testing. One of the transformers was found *412 to be in need of repairs and Yazoo requested Greenwood Utilities to disconnect this transformer and deliver it to Bowman and Bowman for necessary repairs, and then when it had been repaired to reinstall the transformer in its original location. Plaintiff further alleged that Bowman and Bowman, an independent contractor, set the tap setting on the repaired transformer at 14,400 volts while the tap settings on the other two transformers remained at 13,200 volts; that Greenwood Utilities reinstalled the repaired transformer in its original location on Yazoo's premises. Although alleging that the higher tap setting was a latent and hidden defect which would probably result in the overheating of the insulating oil surrounding the core and coil of the transformer, plaintiff charged that Yazoo "accepted the completed work product of its independent contractors, Bowman & Bowman and Greenwood Utilities" and negligently permitted the "bank of transformers to operate on uneven tap settings and negligently failed to conduct an inspection itself as to the tap settings." On November 22, 1970, about 3 o'clock p.m., Yazoo experienced a power failure or outage to a portion of its plant. Plaintiff alleged that Yazoo requested "the assistance of Greenwood Utilities in restoring power to that portion of the Defendant's plant which had suffered the power outage." Greenwood Utilities dispatched Bobby Ray Spruill and Dewey Watson, linemen employed by it, to Yazoo to do the necessary to restore power. Plaintiff further alleged: Plaintiff Spruill charged that the negligence of defendant Yazoo consisted of: The demurrer to the first amended declaration was sustained by Circuit Judge B.B. Wilkes. The demurrers to the second and third amended declarations were sustained by Circuit Judge Arthur B. Clark. Yazoo, engaged in processing soybeans and other agricultural products, depended on Greenwood Utilities, engaged solely in the business of selling and delivering electricity to its customers, for its source of energy. Yazoo was willing to and did pay these independent contractors for services rendered in their chosen field. When Yazoo experienced a power failure on November 22, 1970, it called on Greenwood Utilities, its electrical expert, to do the necessary to restore electricity to its plant. All Yazoo knew was that for some reason it was not getting electricity; it did not know what was wrong. All Yazoo wanted Greenwood Utilities to do was investigate, find out what was wrong and remedy it, and to restore the flow of electricity. In Jackson-Ready Mix Concrete v. Sexton, 235 So. 2d 267 (Miss. 1970), this Court quoted with approval from 41 Am.Jur.2d, Independent Contractors, section 28 (1968): In Corban v. Skelly Oil Company, 256 F.2d 775 (5th Cir.1958), the Circuit Court of Appeals said: The circuit court was correct in sustaining the general demurrer to the third *414 amended declaration, and the judgment of the lower court is affirmed. Affirmed. GILLESPIE, C.J., and PATTERSON, INZER, SMITH, SUGG and WALKER, JJ., concur.