Haynes v. Kaleigh Gas Co.

Citations

• 19 S.E. 344
• 114 N.C. 203

Syllabus

<p>Action for Damages — Death Resulting from, Wrongful Act— Negligence — Prima Facie Case — Burden of Proof — Contributory Negligence — Degree of Care.to be Exercised by Persons or Corporations Using Electric Wires on Streets.</p> <p>1. It is the dnty of a corporation or others using the streets of a city, by permission of the municipal authorities, for purposes of private gain, to so conduct their business as not to injure persons passing along such streets, and to keep the highways occupied by their apparatus in substantially the same condition as to convenience and safety as they were in before such occupancy.</p> <p>2. Negligence being a failure of duty, proof that a “live wire” carrying a deadly current of electricity was hanging over and lying upon a sidewalk, and that it had been placed above the street by and was the property of the defendant corporation and was under the control of the servants of the latter, and that by contact with such wire a person, having a right to be on ttíe street, was killed, constituted a complete prima facie case of negligence, and the burden was put upon the defendant to show that the wire was not down through any negligence of itself or its servants or agents.</p> <p>Where, in the trial of an action for an injury resulting in death and caused by the alleged negligence of defendant, it appeared that the deceased, an intelligent boy ten years old, while walking on the sidewalk of a street, grasped a “live” guy wire hanging to the street and belonging to the defendant, and was killed by the contact, and there was no visible indication that the wire was charged with electricity: Held, that the trial Judge should have told the jury that there was no evidence of contributory negligence on the part of the deceased.</p> <p>J. The utmost degree of care in the construction, inspection and repair of wires and poles is required of those who are allowed to place above the streets of a city wires charged or likely to be charged with a deadly