Case Name: Brown v. Panola Light and Power Company
Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1912-01-10
Citations: 137 Ga. 352
Docket Number: 
Parties: Brown v. Panola Light and Power Company.
Judges: All the Justices concm, except Hill, J., not presiding.
Reporter: Georgia Reports
Volume: 137
Pages: 352–352

Head Matter:
Brown v. Panola Light and Power Company.
January 10, 1912.
Action for damages. Before Judge Reagan. DeKalb superior court. September 24, 1910.
Burton Smith and B. W. Crenshaw, for plaintiff.
L. B. Norton and J. D. Kilpatrick, for defendant.

Opinion:
Evans, P. J.
A power company constructed over the land of another, with his consent, its transmission line. The wires were three in number, strung to poles at a height of 22 feet from the ground. The wires passed over a sweetgum tree, the top of which had been cut out to prevent contact of the wires with the tree. The wires were not insulated, and carried an electrical current of high voltage. The tree had sometimes been visited by children for the purpose of procuring the gum which exuded from cuts or abrasures on the tree, but the power company's officials had no knowledge of this. A thirteen-year-old boy, unusually well grown for his age, though warned by his father some months previously of the dangerous character of the wires, climbed the tree in search of gum, came in contact with the wires, and was killed. Held, that in a suit for damages for the alleged wrongful death of the boy, the power company is not liable.
Judgment affirmed.
All the Justices concm, except Hill, J., not presiding.