Potts v. Shreveport Belt Ry. Co.

Citations

• 110 La. 1
• 34 So. 103
• 1903 La. LEXIS 588

Syllabus

<p>INJURY TO SERVANT — CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE — ELECTRIC WIRES — CARE OE MASTER — INSPECTION.</p> <p>1. It is not of itself contributory negligence to engage in a dangerous occupation.</p> <p>2. Where a person is employed in the presence of a known danger, to constitute contributory negligence it must be shown that he voluntarily and unnecessarily exposed himself to the danger.</p> <p>3. A company maintaining electrical wires, over which a high voltage of electricity is conveyed, rendering them highly dangerous, is under the duty of using the necessary care and prudence at places where others may have the right to go, to prevent injury. It must see to it that its wires are prefectly insulated, and kept so, or else it must provide adequate guard wires or other sufficient safety appliances, as means of protection against the dangerous wires.</p> <p>4. The fact that frequent inspections of the line were made to ascertain the condition of the wires and remedy defective insulation, does no; relieve the company of liability. If the span wire had become dangerously charged with the electrical current, the company’s inspection should have been thorough enough to have detected it. It is the company’s business to Jmow the dangerous defects in or along its lines, and, knowing, to safeguard the same.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>