Rambo v. Empire District Electric Co.

Citations

• 90 Kan. 390
• 133 P. 553
• 1913 Kan. LEXIS 225

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Personal Injuries — Climbing Telephone Pole — Contributory ■ Negligence — Question of Fact. An employee of a telephone company whose duty required him to pass between defectively insulated high-tension electric light wires in climbing a telephone pole, and who was killed in doing so, can not be charged with contributory negligence as a matter of law merely because he failed to ask that the electric current be turned off, which would have been done at his request.</p> <p>2.--Same. If the danger in ascending the pole was not so great and so apparent that a person of ordinary prudence would not encounter it the deceased would not of necessity be negligent in undertaking to do so, and whether or not he was negligent was'a question for the jury.</p> <p>3. Wrongful Death — Measure of Damages — Instructions. In an action for damages for the death of the deceased brought by his widow against the electric light company the court instructed the jury that the plaintiff’s recovery should be for pecuniary loss only for a time not exceeding the deceased’s expectancy, and in a sum not to exceed $10,000. The defendant made no request for further instructions regard- • ing the measure of damages and the verdict was for a moderate amount. Held, the defendant was not prejudiced because the instruction was not more full or specific.</p> <p>4. Quotient Verdict. The principle announced in the case of City of Kinsley v. Morse, 40 Kan. 588, 20 Pac. 217, applied to a verdict the amount of which was arrived at by the ■ quotient method.</p>