Opinion ID: 1364140
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Appeal of the Power Company

Text: Electricity is also inherently dangerous. Consequently, a company supplying it to a customer's building must use a high degree of foresight and must exercise the utmost diligence consistent with the practical operation of its business. Kiser v. Carolina Power & Light Co., 216 N.C. 698, 6 S.E.2d 713. Such company is not, however, liable for damages resulting from a fire, unless it be shown that the fire was proximately caused by the electricity supplied by the company to the building and that, in so supplying the electricity, the company was negligent. Fleming v. Carolina Power & Light Co., 232 N.C. 457, 61 S.E.2d 364. Plaintiff's evidence, considered as it must be upon a motion for judgment of nonsuit, must be deemed to establish that the first fire burned insulation upon the wires carrying electric current through the building, so that the metal wires were thereafter exposed. In this situation, the meter was taken out, cutting off all current from the building. The plaintiff's husband, who was her spokesman at the fire, she being present, instructed the Power Company's employee, who took out the meter, not to replace it until the building was rewired. Nevertheless, the Power Company's service man subsequently reinstalled the meter. To turn electric current into the wiring system of a building, with notice that the wires therein are bare of insulation, is not consistent with that high degree of care which must be used by an electric power company in the handling of its product. There is evidence in the record from which it might be found that, before this meter was reinstalled, all switches inside the building had been pulled to an off position so that no current could pass through the master switch, that the switches remained in this position until after the second fire and that the reinstallation of the meter was done at the request of an electrician employed by the plaintiff and was consented to by the plaintiff's husband and by Mrs. Swann. However, all of this evidence was introduced by the defendant Power Company and may not be considered in passing upon its motion for judgment of nonsuit. Considering the plaintiff's evidence alone and drawing from it all reasonable inferences favorable to her, the jury could infer that the reinstallation of the meter caused electricity to pass through the wiring system inside the building, parts of which were bare of insulation and that this caused the second fire. Consequently, the Power Company's motion for judgment of nonsuit was properly overruled. There was error, however, in permitting, over the Power Company's objection, plaintiff's witnesses Cook and Colb to testify, respectively: My opinion is that a spark ignited gas in this building and this is what caused the fire; and There was gas present and an electrical spark ignited the gas. Neither of these witnesses was present at the time of either fire. Each so testified in response to a question, to which the Power Company duly objected, which question was hypothetical in form and included, among its hypotheses, that on the morning of the 9th of May, 1964, between 6:30 and 7 o'clock an explosion occurred in the Keith Building;    that the building and its contents caught fire and the blaze rose some 25 feet high and the building and contents were substantially damaged by the fire;   . The question was: Under these circumstances, have you an opinion satisfactory to yourself as to the cause of the second fire on the morning of the 9th of May, 1964? The question is based on an hypothesis not supported by any evidence, namely, that the explosion preceded the fire and the building caught fire as a result of the explosion. The plaintiff's evidence is that the fire had been in progress for a substantial period of time before the explosion occurred. To be competent, a hypothetical question may include only facts which are already in evidence or those which a jury might logically infer therefrom. Ingram v. McCuiston, 261 N.C. 392, 400, 134 S.E. 2d 705, 711; Jackson v. Stancil, 253 N.C. 291, 303, 116 S.E.2d 817; Dameron v. Rowland Lumber Co., 161 N.C. 495, 77 S.E. 694; State v. Holly, 155 N.C. 485, 71 S.E. 450; Burnett v. Wilmington, N. & N. Ry. Co., 120 N.C. 517, 26 S.E. 819; Stansbury, North Carolina Evidence, § 137. Furthermore, the question was improper in form in that it calls for an opinion as to what was the cause of the second fire, rather than an opinion as to whether the situation, propounded as an hypothesis which might be found by the jury to be a fact, could have caused the fire. See Perfecting Service Co. v. Product Development & Sales Co., 259 N.C. 400, 414, 131 S.E.2d 9; Stansbury, North Carolina Evidence, § 137. The function of expert opinion is to assist the jury in evaluating and applying facts shown by other evidence. This question called for, and in answering it, each witness stated, as a fact, the existence of a condition which the witness, not having been present, could not know, but as to which he could only conjecture, namely, that there was gas in the building. As was said by Devin, J., later C. J., speaking for the Court, in Patrick v. Treadwell, 222 N.C. 1, 4, 21 S.E.2d 818, 821, the rule permitting an expert witness to express his opinion should not be relaxed to the extent of opening the door to the statement of an evidential fact in issue beyond the knowledge of the witness under the guise of an expert opinion. The admission of this testimony in response to this hypothetical question was prejudicial to the Power Company and requires a new trial as to it. Since there must, for this reason, be a new trial as to the Power Company, it is not necessary to consider its other assignments of error. They relate to matters which may not arise upon another trial. Reversed as to United Cities Gas Company. New Trial as to Duke Power Company.