Court Opinion

ID: 9542710
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:37:39.998707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:44.605468
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION OF
MIZUHA, J.
The facts and circumstances of this case definitely indicate: (1) That defendant’s employee was negligent in failing to make a proper inspection of plaintiff’s electric service cable between the pole and meter box, and (2) That we cannot divide the areas of responsibility for the electric cable between the utility’s pole and plaintiff’s meter box.
When Mr. Ching, the foreman of a line crew of defendant, came upon plaintiff’s premises to determine a fact which could have been ascertained from the pole outside of plaintiff’s premises, he had the duty to inspect the entire length of the electric service cable between the pole and the meter box. Plaintiff would not have been placed in the position of being shocked by a live wire if defendant's employee, Mr. Ching, had not come upon plaintiff’s premises to do something that was not to plaintiff’s benefit. Mr. Ching chose to determine from the location of plaintiff’s meter box whether there was electricity flowing along the utility’s main line to the electric pole from which electric service cables led to Furtado’s and plaintiff’s residence. By inviting himself on the premises to do something for the benefit of the utility company, *423Mr. Ching’s course of action resulted in injury to plaintiff.
Mr. Ching’s inspection of the electric service cable from pole to plaintiff’s meter box was not reasonable under the facts of this case. In fact, he made no inspection. Mr. Ching testified:
“Q When you were in Mrs. Furtado’s yard, could you see the Naki service cable?
“A Yes, I saw it.
“Q How was that?
“A That was still up.
“Q Then you said you went -through the gate into Mrs. Naki’s yard?
“A That’s right.”
All Mr. Ching saw was that the service cable “was still up.” There is no testimony to the effect that he conducted any sort of inspection. It is difficult to comprehend the argument of the court when it states that “[w]hen Mr. Ching requested permission to go onto the plaintiff’s property he neither knew nor should have known of any facts which would require him to warn the plaintiff of danger.” Mr. Ching testified that the electric cables leading to the Furtado and plaintiff’s residences originated from the same utility pole back of the plaintiff’s residence, and that the Furtado cable was down on the ground on the back corner of plaintiff’s lot, caused by a big cluster of falling coconuts “maybe a dozen or so, more or less — * * * .” The uncontroverted evidence shows that the antenna wire was hanging from the service cable and was energized because it was in contact with a bare spot on the cable.
This court has now established for housewives a standard of knowledge, skills and understanding of electric cables and electric power and their dangerous characteristics similar to that of a foreman of a line crew of an electric public utility. How times have changed. Even if the housewife had seen the antenna wire on the electric service cable, she would not have known that it was dangerous, because she did not have the same kind of training as an electric utility’s lineman, and would have no idea of the possibility that it might be energized by contact to a live spot on the service cable. A natural reaction for a housewife whenever *424she saw another wire dangling from the electric cable would be to pull it down without any concern about it being energized by contact to a bare spot on the electric cable.
When Mr. Ching elected to test Whether there was electric energy in the main power line by going to the meter box of plaintiff’s premises, he automatically assumed the duty of checking that portion of the service cable from the pole to the meter box. Any routine inspection of the service cable by an experienced lineman would have revealed the antenna wire in contact with a bare spot which was located only a few feet from the meter box. If Mr. Ching were not negligent in inspecting the service cable, and had seen the antenna wire, he would have warned plaintiff of the possible dangers from said antenna wire and would have then tested the flow of electricity at the pole.
No hindsight test need be applied in this case. The question is one of proper procedure by a lineman of electric public utility. This court now establishes the rule that when a lineman of an electric public utility answers a call concerning a broken service cable caused by falling coconuts from a consumer and there is a live wire still left on the consumer’s pole as in this case, and then elects to go to a neighbor’s home to check whether there is electric power in the utility’s main service line, it is unnecessary for the lineman to inspect the neighbor’s service cable from the pole to the meter box, even though there is a distinct possibility that the falling coconuts may also have damaged the service cable or other loose wires.
The foreman of the line crew of the public utility has no duty to warn a housewife because this court assumes as a matter of law that the standard of knowledge, skills and understanding of electric cables and electric power when falling coconuts have severed a neighbor’s service cable and left a live wire on the service pole, is the same for housewives and electric utility linemen who service and repair downed electric cables and wires.
If a housewife, who, at the request of the utility lineman, is at the scene of the testing operation and is injured from a live energized wire as in this case, she is without a cause of action because the antenna wire which caused the injury was energized from a bare spot on the service cable about two or three feet *425from the eaves of the house, that portion of the cable being the property of the consumer.
Heaven help housewives who are consumers of electric power in the State of Hawaii. They must now possess the same skills and knowledge of electric lines and electric power as the trained trouble-shooters of an electric public utility.