Coughlin

Plaintiff recovered judgment in the lower court for damages sustained by him November 3, 1913, by the short-circuiting of a twenty-two thousand volt current through his body while he was engaged in the work of cleaning certain bushings and wires in an electric substation operated by ,the defendant, his employer. Defendant appeals. At the time of the injury the Roseberry Act (Stats. 1911, p. 796) was in force, and both plaintiff and defendant had elected to be bound by the provisions thereof. Plaintiff, however, ignored the compensatory provisions of that statute as therein authorized, in cases of gross personal negligence, and brought this action in which the jury found as a fact by necessary implication that the defendant was guilty of such gross personal negligence. Unless such negligence has been proved, the plaintiff cannot recover. The claim of negligence is based npon the failure of the employer to furnish a safe place to work. Briefly stated, the admitted facts are as follows: In the substation were three stationary transformers by which electricity entering at one hundred thousand volts was transformed by induction into a current of twenty-two thousand volts. To prevent…

I dissent. In this action for damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff while in the employment of the defendant, a corporation engaged in the business of generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity for lighting, heating, and power purposes, the prevailing opinion reversed the judgment in favor of the plaintiff upon the theory that the evidence adduced upon the whole case did not support the finding of ' the jury, implied from their verdict, that the defendant was guilty of gross negligence in the maintenance and operation of that part of its power plant' where the plaintiff was injured during the course of his employment. The prevailing opinion holds that defendant corporation was not guilty of gross negligence. I cannot concur in this conclusion.

The facts of the case, as I find them from a perusal of the record, are these: Along defendant’s main transmission line, which carries electricity at one hundred thousand volts from its generating plant or power-house in Butte County to San Francisco Bay, are several substations. These substations are installed for the purpose of reducing the voltage carried by the main transmission line for distribution from…

I dissent. I am in accord with the opinion of Mr. Justice Lennon and shall confine myself to some additional observations. The main opinion rests upon a negative answer to the question, “Was it negligence so to arrange the substation that a man was required to clean the wire distant twenty-eight and one-fourth inches from an uninsulated wire carrying a current of twenty-two thousand volts?” This conclusion is arrived at by a line of reasoning that we will take judicial notice that it is a “scientific impossibility” for a current of twenty-two thousand volts to “jump” a distance of twenty-one inches; that this, was not the place where the plaintiff was ' usually required to work, and that the known proximity of the wires made it imperative for him to “be alert to the perils of his position”; that, inasmuch as he admitted “flipping” the cleaning rag about in order to reach higher on the wire which he was wiping, and also to shake the rag free from dust, “it is evident” that the injury was occasioned by his carelessness rather than by any negligence of the defendant; that, moreover, in view of the “scientific impossibility” already referred to, it cannot be considered negligence for…