Key West Electric Co. v. Roberts

Citations

• 81 Fla. 743
• 89 So. 122

Syllabus

<p>1. Persons or corporations engaged in the business of transmitting electricity for use in private houses are held to a high degree of care for the safety of the public and the safety of thoughtless, inexperienced and rash children.</p> <p>?. Electric companies or persons engaged in transmitting electrical current into houses for domestic use are not insurers of the safety of children or adults and are not held to a degree of care, prudence and foresight beyond which prudent and careful persons have to exercise in such like circumstances.</p> <p>3. Where a declaration in an action for damages for wrongful death of a person against an electric company engaged in the business of supplying electric current for domestic use, alleges that the deceased was lawfully upon the premises at the place where he received the electric shock which resulted in his death, the plaintiff cannot recover if the evidence shows that the deceased, a boy of about fourteen years of age, was unlawfully at the place where he received such electric shock, and where his presence could not have been anticipated by the exercise oh the part of the company’s officers of due care, prudence and foresight.</p>