Opinion ID: 1107805
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Heading: Statement and Application of Legal Precepts

Text: The crucial questions are (a) whether the power company was required to recognize that its conduct involved a risk of causing physical injury or loss to another in the manner of that sustained by the plaintiff, and, if so, (b) whether the possibility of such injury or loss constituted an unreasonable risk of harm. These issues are decisive under either a duty-risk or a traditional negligence approach. See D. Robertson, W. Powers, Jr., D. Anderson, Cases and Materials on Torts p. 160-196 (1989); W. Malone, Essays on Torts pp. 325-351 (1986); Prosser and Keeton on Torts § 28 et. seq. (5th ed. 1984); T. McNamara, Ruminations on Tort Law: A Symposium in Honor of Wex Malone: The Duties and Risks of the Duty Risk Analysis. 44 La.L.Rev. 1227 (1984); L. Green, Judge And Jury pp. 1-244 (1930); H. Alston Johnson, Louisiana Jury Instruction pp. 3-14 (1980); D. Robertson, Reason Versus Rule In Louisiana Tort Law: Dialogues On Hill v. Lundin and Associates, Inc., 34 La.L.Rev. 1 (1973); H. Alston Johnson, Comparative Negligence and the Duty Risk Analysis, 40 La.L. Rev. 319, 327 (1980). Compare Pitre v. Opelousas General Hosp., 530 So.2d 1151 (La.1988) with Hill v. Lundin, 260 La. 542, 256 So.2d 620 (1972). The legal duty under one approach and the standard of conduct under the other impose the same obligation, viz., when the power company realizes or should realize that the transmission of electricity through its line presents an unreasonable risk of causing physical harm to another, it is under a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent the risk from taking effect. It is undisputed that the escape of electricity from the power company's line was a cause in fact of the plaintiff's injuries. If the risk which took effect as plaintiff's injuries was an unreasonable one, and the power company failed to comply with a duty or standard of care requiring it to take precautions against that danger, the risk was within the scope of the defendant's duty and defendant's substandard conduct was a legal cause of the injuries.