Court Opinion

ID: 9668852
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:28:47.612547+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:49.004359
License: Public Domain

McGehee, C. J.,
dissenting in part:
The test of liability in this case was whether or not the appellants Mississippi Power & Light Company, Cities Service Oil Company, and The Larco Drilling Company were negligent in connection with the injury complained of by the appellee W. it. Walters, and whether or not the accident was reasonably foreseeable. We all agree that the verdict of the jury was erroneous in finding all three of these appellants guilty of negligence which proximately caused the injury to the plaintiff Walters, and in assessing his damages at the sum of $25,000 against all three of them.
We find no basis for the verdict insofar as the Cities Service Oil Company and thé Larco Drilling Company are concerned. The writer of this opinion alone thinks that the judgment appealed from is erroneous also as to the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company.
As to whether the accident and the injury to the plaintiff was reasonably foreseeable or not, the record discloses that during the year 1928 the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company acquired a right of way across the field and woods of its grantors in Simpson County, Mississippi. The question is whether or not the said appellant should have reasonably foreseen that approximately 33 years thereafter the owners of *266the land from which the said appellant was acquiring its right of way, might some day sell all or a part of the minerals under the land and that the purchaser of the minerals might some day obtain from the State Oil & Gas Board a permit to drill an oil well on the particular strip of land covered by the right of way; that the said purchaser of the minerals would some day employ a drilling company to drill a well on the location of the right of way; that the drilling company might then haul machinery and equipment for the drilling of a well to and store the same on the 150 by 200 foot well site; that among the machinery and equipment so stored on the right of way would be an A-Frame some 12 or more feet high, and weighing approximately 4,000 pounds, which had been stored on the right of way for only about four days time prior to the accident, and had reason to believe that the drilling company in loading the said machinery and equipment on trucks to be hauled to another well site would cause the plaintiff, an employee of the Luther McGill, Inc., which is not a party to this suit, to be injured by an electric shock resulting from a contact of the said A-Frame with the high tension wires of the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company located a distance of 55 feet away and between 19.6 and 20.6 feet above the ground. I therefore dissent from the affirmance of the $25,000 judgment as to the Mississippi Power & Light Company based upon this theory of alleged reasonable foreseeability, but I concur in requiring a remittitur of $10,000 from the judgment as against the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company to be entered here.
Moreover, the plaintiff was shown to have been repeatedly warned of the danger and he repeatedly admitted that he had received such warning not to contact the high tension wires, and he admitted that he knew that they were dangerous. In this state the doctrine of the assumption of risk is still in full force and effect, *267except as between master and servant. There was no such relationship between the plaintiff, W. R. Walters, and the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company, and none such is contended for.
The appellees rely strongly on the cases of Southern Pine Electric Power Assn. v. Denson, 214 Miss. 397, 57 So. 2d 859, and Grice v. Central Electric Power Assn., 230 Miss. 437, 92 So. 2d 837, but I think that these two cases are readily distinguishable on the factual situation from the case at bar in that in the Denson case, supra, the electric power association acquired a right of way over the land of Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Stringer, the appellee’s decedents. Mr. Stringer already had a well in his backyard, and the electric power association erected its high tension wires directly over the said well. There was constructed around the curb of the well a platform 3 or 4 feet high, on which Mr. Stringer was standing at the time of the accident, and he pulled out of the well a piece of pipe 24 feet in length to clean out the strainer point thereof. He caused the piece of pipe to come in contact with the high tension wires directly above the well and he was instantly electrocuted. Thereupon Mrs. Stringer ran to his assistance and she was likewise electrocuted.
The negligence of the electric power association in that case consisted of its placing its wires directly over a well which had already been located in the backyard, and the power company should have reasonably forseen that in cleaning out the strainer point at the end of the pipe it would likely occur that the pipe would be brought into contact with the high tension wires which were then and there approximately 20 feet above the ground.
In the Grice case, supra, a highway was being relocated and reconstructed from the village of Sebastopol to the City of Forest, and the highway was being elevated by the construction of a dirt fill several feet high underneath the high tension wires of the Central Elec*268trie Power Association. Thereupon Grice stepped on the running board of the truck to which a boom was attached, and this boom came in contact with the high tension wire above, with the result that Grice was shocked and badly burned. Under all the facts and circumstances the power company should have reasonably foreseen that because of the elevation of the highway the boom on the truck would easily be brought into contact with the high tension wires above, and that injury would result to the workmen. In other words, I am of the opinion that the two foregoing cases are readily distinguishable on their facts and are controlled by different principles of law.
Moreover, in the Grice case, there was' an electric light pole of the Power Association left in the embankment at a sharp curve in the dirt fill above mentioned, and this light pole was so located that the high tension wires hung directly over the highway and the dirt fill on which the truck and boom were located were brought much closer to the high tension wires than they had been theretofore. I think that this condition made it reasonably foreseeable that with this light pole in the embankment of the sharp curve of the highway such an accident would likely occur.
ON MOTION TO CORRECT JUDGMENT
Kyle, P. J.:
The lower court rendered a judgment in this case on March 10, 1962, in favor of the appellee W. R. Walters against the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company and its two codefendants, Cities Service Oil Company and Larco Drilling Company, for the sum of $25,000. This Court on November 25, 1963, affirmed the judgment of the lower court as to the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company on condition that the appellee enter a remittitur of $10,000, thus reducing the judgment to $15,000. The appellee entered a re*269mittitur, and a judgment was thereupon entered against the Mississippi Power & Light Company and the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company as surety on its supersedeas bond, for the sum of $15,000. The judgment of the lower court was reversed as to the appellant Cities Service Oil Company and Larco Drilling Company, and judgment was entered here in favor of those two appellants.
A motion has been filed by the appellee W. R. Walters to correct the final judgment rendered herein against the appellant, Mississippi Power & Light Company, so as to provide that the judgment for $15,000 shall bear interest from the date of the judgment of the lower court, and so as to provide that the costs of appeal to this Court be taxed one-half to the appellee W. R. Walters, and one-half to the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company and its surety.
Since the filing of the above mentioned motion to correct judgment, the attorneys for the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company and the attorneys for the appellee W. R. Walters have filed with the Clerk of this Court an agreement in writing for the entry of a corrected judgment whereby the appellee W. R. Walters shall have and recover interest on the $15,000 judgment affirmed by this Court from the date of the rendition of the judgment of the lower court, and whereby the costs of the appeal shall be taxed one-half to the appellee W. R. Walters and one-half to the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company and its surety.
 The motion of the appellee to correct judgment will therefore be sustained, and the judgment of this Court rendered on November 25, 1963, affirming the judgment of the lower court, after the entry of a remittitur, against the appellant Mississippi Power & Light Company and the surety on its supersedeas appeal bond will be amended and corrected so as to provide *270for the recovery by the appellee of $15,000, together with interest thereon in the amount of $1,712.50; and the costs of this appeal shall be divided equally between the appellee and the appellant. See Illinois Central Railroad Company et al. v. Nelson (1963), 245 Miss. 395, 148 So. 2d 712.
The judgment of this Court reversing the judgment of the lower court as to the appellants Cities Service Oil Company and Larco Drilling Company, and awarding judgment in favor of those two appellants will be reaffirmed.
Motion to correct judgment sustained.
All Justices concur except Lee, C. J., who took no part.