Binger v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

STURTEVANT, J.

From a judgment fixing the amount of damages suffered by the plaintiff for personal injuries the defendant, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, has appialed. The facts on which the verdict rests are as follows: At about 10 A. M. on May 18, 1934—a year and five months before the trial—the plaintiff had just finished taking a bath in her bathroom in her residence at 1728 Tenth Street, Berkeley, California. She had dried herself and taken an alcohol rub after finishing her bath. In the bathroom was an electric heater which stood near the foot of the bathtub. The heater cord was inserted in one of the sockets of a double socket attachment. Into the other socket was inserted one end of an extension cord. The other end

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of the cord was inserted in a wire socket in the kitchen whence the heater was energized. The extension cord ran under the locked door of the bathroom. The plaintiff, while standing on the floor of the bathroom, and after she had dried herself, disconnected the extension cord from the socket, holding the cord in her left hand about two and one-half inches from the end. The end flipped back and one of the prongs struck her thumb and two fingers. She received a shock which was so severe that it precipitated her into the bathtub in which remained two or three inches of water. The prong froze to her thumb and fingers as she lay in the water. From the time the prong hit her fingers burning commenced which continued until her mother, hearing her calls, pulled the plug in the kitchen, cutting off the current. The plaintiff was then able to release the prong from her hand. As a result of the electrical current the plaintiff sustained severe burns of the thumb and first and second digits of the left hand and various other contusions and burns and the skin and flesh on, and parts of the bones in her fingers, sloughed off.

On Tenth Street, in Berkeley, the defendant maintains an electric line consisting of poles, crossbars, insulators and wires. The poles are nearly 60 feet high. Some have as many as six crossbars on which there are insulators consisting of a wooden stem with an insulating disc attached. The upper wires carry a single phase 2400 volt circuit of two wires—one hot and one neutral. The lower wires are for distributing and carry a normal circuit of 110-220 volts. Except as hereinafter mentioned there is no claim that said system was improperly constructed or maintained. From the distributing line, wires carrying 120 volts are led into the house of the plaintiff. The plaintiff pleaded, and thereafter offered proof, to the effect that the plaintiff’s hand was burned by an excess of voltage negligently allowed by defendant to pass into plaintiff’s residence over its secondary wires. It was a conceded fact the