Southern Cal. Edison Co. v. Coleman

150 Cal.App.2d Supp. 829 (1957) 310 P.2d 504 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY, Appellant,

v.

LLOYD S. COLEMAN, JR., et al., Respondents.

Docket No. 9266. Court of Appeals of California, Appellate Department, Superior Court, Los Angeles.

April 29, 1957. Renwick, Woodbury & Barry III and David N. Barry III for Appellant.

Henshey & Beeman and John A. Beeman for Respondents.

SWAIN, J.

The plaintiff appeals from a judgment on the merits in favor of the defendants. Plaintiff sued for damages to its wires, poles and equipment caused by defendants' airplane colliding with those wires a short distance south of an airport which defendants were approaching for the purpose of making a landing. The complaint alleges that the defendants were negligent. The implied finding of the trial court is that this allegation is untrue. Appellant argues that respondents were trespassers when they struck appellant's electric line and are therefore liable. Respondents argue and the court impliedly found that the trespass, if any, was unavoidable and the result of an act of God. The claimed act of God was a downdraft which caused the plane to drop to the level of the wires when it was too late for the pilot to avoid a collision.

[1] The case presents this one important question of law. [830] Is a pilot whose plane falls and collides with ground installations absolutely liable for damage thus caused or is he liable only in case he was guilty of negligence which proximately caused the collision? In Gallin v. Poulou (1956), 140 Cal. App.2d 638, the court stated at page 645 [295 P.2d 958]: "... in this state there is no liability for a trespass unless the trespass is intentional, the result of recklessness or negligence, or the result of engaging in an extrahazardous activity." This was not an airplane case but it compels us to consider the law of extrahazardous activity. In Johnson v. Central Aviation Corp. (1951), 103 Cal. App.2d 102 [229 P.2d 114], the court said at page 111: "It is true that the law formerly looked upon aviation as an ultrahazardous activity and the Uniform Aeronautics Act which was once adopted in many states did impose absolute liability on the owner as well as the operator or lessee of every aircraft for any damage to person or property caused by its operation unless there was contributory negligence on the part of the injured person. However, this view has come to be modified and now it is considered that properly handled by a competent pilot an airplane is not an inherently dangerous instrument."