Mendez v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

[193]

JONES, J. pro tem.

This appeal is from a judgment of nonsuit entered upon the opening statement of plaintiffs’ counsel to the jury.

The action is for damages for personal injuries which plaintiff alleges he sustained because the Pacific Gas and Electric Company ‘‘ carelessly and negligently managed, maintained and controlled” electric wires from their pole to 4720 Mead Street in the city of Richmond, California. It is alleged by the plaintiff that the insulation on said electric wires was allowed to become deteriorated and put in such a state of disrepair that when he grasped them the electricity was permitted to course through his body.

At the commencement of the trial plaintiffs’ counsel made the following opening statement to the jury;

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, you heard what the Judge said about the nature and purpose of an opening statement. My evidence will show to you what happened in this case. It’s a very simple tale of a boy and a ball and some bare wires and a fall and some injuries; that’s what it amounts to.

“My evidence will show that on September 9th, 1949, someone, I don’t know whether it was the plaintiff in this case or someone else, knocked a ball on the roof of the house where the plaintiff was living, which is in the Seaport Housing Facilities; that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company delivers electricity to that housing place; that on this particular occasion the plaintiff, this young boy, went up on the roof to retrieve his ball, or the ball that was knocked up there. When he got up there, he grabbed onto some wires, apparently for support. These wires were electric wires, which delivered electricity into this housing unit. The'wires had been allowed to become bare; I mean the ordinary insulation which surrounds the wires had become frayed and the wires bare, and as the boy grabbed the wires they came together, and there was a flash, an electric arc, which, if you don’t know it, the electric arc produces ultraviolet rays, the same as the sun. And the burn from an electric are, whether you’re a welder or whether you’re a small boy retrieving a ball, or whatever you are, has the same effect upon the system as the sunlight does—prolonged sunlight. It’s a momentary flash of rather severe intensity, and it exposes the parts of the person that are exposed to this ultraviolet light which affects the face, the skin, the hands and the eyes. And