Court Opinion

ID: 9672340
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:53:03.024629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:15.464945
License: Public Domain

WOLLMAN, Justice
(dissenting).
I am persuaded that the trial court did not err in giving the res ipsa loquitur instruction.
Had the obstruction been caused by some form of sewage or a foreign object that could have been carried into the main sewer line from the home owners’ lateral lines, then the res ipsa instruction would not have been justified. Freitag v. City of Montello, 36 Wis.2d 409, 153 N.W.2d 505. However, the only logical inference to be drawn from the evidence is that the obstruction was caused by the stick that somehow found its way into the sewer line. The likelihood that the stick got into the sewer line from one of the lateral lines leading from one of the homes is so remote that we can only assume that it entered through an open manhole. The manholes were within the *564exclusive control of the city in the -sense that the city was under' an obligation to take reasonable steps to insure that foreign objects were not deposited within the sewer, either deliberately or accidentally.