Court Opinion

ID: 9689430
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:31:04.641019+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:48.030469
License: Public Domain

*131Kyle, J.,
Dissenting:
I cannot concur in the majority opinion rendered in this case.
Whether the power association was negligent in stringing its wires along the highway in such manner as to overhang for a considerable distance the traveled portion of the highway, and thereby endanger the use of the highway by the traveling public; and whether the power association was negligent in erecting its pole on the edge of the shoulder of the highway, and within 3% or 4 feet from the traveled portion of the highway in a manner to be dangerous to persons using the highway, or to interfere with the common use of the road; and whether such negligence, if any, was a proximate contributing cause of the plaintiff’s injuries, were questions for the jury to decide; and the case, in my opinion, should have been submitted to the jury under proper instructions of the court.
Section 2778, Mississippi Code of 1942, Recompiled, provides that electric power associations “are authorized and empowered to erect, place and maintain their posts, wires and conductors along and across any of the public highways * * *, and also through any of the public lands; but the same shall be so constructed and placed as not to be dangerous to persons or property; nor interfere with the common use of such roads * * Section 2780, Mississippi Code of 1942, Recompiled, authorizes all such companies to exercise the right of eminent domain and “to build and construct the said pipe lines and appliances along or across highways * * *, but not in a manner to be dangerous to persons or property, nor to interfere with the common use of such roads.”
Any unauthorized obstruction which unnecessarily impedes or incommodes the lawful use of a highway is a public nuisance at common law. Elliott, Roads & Streets, 2d Ed. Sec. 644. “Even though the entire width of a *132highway is not prepared for travel, or although a bridge or culvert does not extend to its entire width, the public rights of passage are not thereby limited in favor of one who places an unauthorized or improper structure within the highway limits, nor is the latter relieved from liability for injuries resulting therefrom by reason of the fact that such obstruction is outside the traveled way.” 25 Am. Jur., 809, Highways, par. 527.
The appellees’ attorneys rely upon the cases of Gulfport and Mississippi Traction Company, et al. v. Manuel, et al. (1920), 123 Miss. 266, 85 So. 308, and Mississippi Power Company v. Sellers (1931), 160 Miss. 512, 133 So. 594. But the facts in each of those cases were entirely different from the facts shown by the record in this case. The Manuel case was decided prior to the enactment of Chapter 291, Laws of 1922, which appears in its amended form as Section 2780, Code of 1942, Recompiled. In the Manuel case the guy wire post with which the decedent collided was used to support the trolley wire which furnished electric power to propel the movement of trolley cars along a street in the City of Biloxi. In the Sellers case the pole with which the appellee collided was located eight feet from the traveled portion of the road, and ‘ ‘ about as far from the traveled way as possible and at the same time be wholly upon the public land.”
The shoulders of a highway in my opinion are for the use of traffic in cases of emergencies, or when circumstances indicate their usefulness, and they should be kept free of unnecessary obstructions which are likely to cause injury to persons using the highway.
Justices Lee and Rodgers join in this dissent.