Opinion ID: 1792067
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Liability of LP & L

Text: In reviewing the judgment of the district court, this court must give deference to the district court's findings of fact which are not clearly erroneous, but must apply to these facts the correct standard of care in order to determine LP & L's liability. LP & L was liable for the second fire only if it knew or should have known that a defect resulting from the first fire created a dangerous condition at some point between the meter and the pole. Stated otherwise, LP & L's failure to cut the wires at the pole after the first fire was not a legal cause of the second fire unless LP & L's failure breached some duty owed by LP & L. There was no duty to cut the wires at the pole unless LP & L knew or should have known that there was a dangerous condition in the wires between the meter and the pole. The first fire occurred in the master bathroom. While there was no apparent damage from the first fire to the breaker panel (shown by a B in the sketch on page 3) on the rear wall of of the bathroom, there was flame damage to the rear wall, the top of which (according to plaintiff) was completely burned away. And while there was no apparent damage from the first fire to the service installation located on the outside of the rear wall, there was fire damage above the window (shown on the sketch on page 3) near the weatherhead. Plaintiff's expert in electrical engineering testified that the heat from the first fire caused the insulation on the wiring at the top of the mast to soften (which can occur in the low two-hundred degree range), and the insulation on the wires in the weatherhead (where the wires were already under some pretty heavy stresses from being bent by the cap) did not return to its original condition as did the insulation on the lower wires. [9] Thereafter, the deformation thus created was susceptible upon any movement (as by wind on the service or by cooling or by structure shift) to a breakthrough in the last portion of the insulation. He opined that because of the flame damage from the first fire in the area of the weatherhead and the absence of other fire or smoke at the time of the eruption of the second fire, there was no significant probability that the arcing in the weatherhead was not related to the first fire. The testimony of the eyewitnesses to the flame damage after the first fire, together with the expert testimony as to the possible effects of flames from the window near the weatherhead and of other sources of heat on the insulation covering the bent wires in the weatherhead, support the conclusion that the first fire caused a dangerous condition which ultimately resulted in the second fire. The fact that a second fire occurred four hours later in the general area above the damage from the first fire, without any other plausible explanation for its origin, further indicates a causal relationship between the fires. Because there was flame damage above the bathroom window near the weatherhead after the first fire, as well as extensive burning of the upper interior wall opposite the weatherhead, LP & L's servicemen (with their specialized knowledge, as noted in the Hughes decision), should have realized the amount of heat to which the wires at the top of the mast had been subjected and should have known that the fire may have created a dangerous condition between the meter and the weatherhead. In the light of this constructive knowledge the servicemen's removal of the meter was not sufficient to discharge LP & L's duty to shut off the electricity to the area of the foreseeably dangerous condition which resulted in the second fire. [10] Accordingly, the judgment of the court of appeal is reversed, and the judgment of the district court is reinstated. All costs are assessed to defendant.