Hill

This action was commenced by plaintiff as the administrator of the estate of his son, Oscar Robert Hill, deceased, to recover damages resulting from the death of the latter caused by an electric shock while in the employ of defendant, Bucket Gravel Mining Company, hereinafter referred to as the mining company. A jury was called to try the case, and, at the close of plaintiff's testimony, each of the defendants moved for a nonsuit which was granted by the trial court. Plaintiff's motion for a new trial was denied and thereupon judgment passed for defendants. Plaintiff appeals for the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial on statement of the case. The relation of the defendant, Pacific Gas Electric Company (hereinafter referred to as the electric company) to the accident, as shown by the uncontradicted testimony, very clearly appears. This company was engaged in the business of supplying electricity for power and other purposes. It had a line passing the mining company's dredger carrying about four thousand four hundred volts, which voltage it engaged to deliver to the mining company at a meter owned by and placed upon a pole by the electric company on the…

In his petition for rehearing plaintiff urges as ground therefor that, in the opinion heretofore rendered, the court invaded the province of the jury in dealing with the facts concerning the defendant, Pacific Gas Electric Company. The petition states: "The court may possibly be right in its view of the evidence as indicated in its statement of facts, which on the basis of lack of control of the electrical company, and complete control by the mining company, would exempt the electrical company from liability and hold the mining company liable. But where did the court get its right to usurp the functions of the jury and, in effect, weigh this evidence at all?" We neither claimed nor exercised such right. There was no pretense by plaintiff that the electric company had any control of the electricity beyond the switch that allowed the current to pass to the transformers, and there was not a particle of evidence tending to show any control of the current by the electric company after it was received by the mining company and passed into the transformers erected by and under the exclusive control of the latter, as were all the appliances erected to utilize the current. Indeed, this…