Polloni v. Ryland

LENNON, P. J.

In this action the plaintiffs, as the heirs-at-law of one Eda Polloni, deceased, sought to recover damages for her death, which, it was alleged, was proximately

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caused by the negligence of the defendant. Judgment was entered for the defendant- upon the verdict of a jury, from which and from an order denying a new trial the plaintiffs have appealed. The alleged insufficiency of the evidence to warrant and support the verdict and judgment is the principal point urged in support of the appeal.

Briefly stated, the facts of the case, as shown by the evidence adduced upon the trial, are these: The defendant, doing business under the name of the Sonoma Valley Company, was engaged in manufacturing electric light and power and supplying the same to the inhabitants of the town of Sonoma and adjacent surburban settlements in the county of Sonoma. One of the defendant’s transmission lines extended from the town of Sonoma to the town of Glen Ellen. This line consisted of two heavy electric wires strung upon poles located on the westerly side of the county road and passed immediately in front, of the premises of the deceased. Her home, however, stood back one hundred yards or more from the road, and at a point near by a -stream known as “Hooper Creek” crossed the county road at right angles and intervened between the lands of the deceased and those of one Bacigalupi. On both the north and south banks of this creek there was placed a pole, which supported the transmission wires of the defendant. The entrance from the county road to the Bacigalupi premises was situated about one hundred and twenty feet north of the pole standing on the north bank of the creek, and these premises were inclosed on the east and south by a redwood picket fence. As the result of an unusually violent storm occurring and continuing during the night of May 15th and the early morning hours of May 16th, 1910, the transmission wires of the defendant were torn from their fastenings at various points, and at a point adjacent to the premises of the deceased and those of Bacigalupi dropped to the ground. The dropping of the wires at the point stated was caused by the branch of a tree falling upon and breaking the crossarm of the pole nearest to the Bacigalupi premises on the north bank of the creek. The breaking of the cross-, arm resulted in the dropping of the westerly transmission wire to the bed of the creek. The easterly transmission wire, however, remained suspended and intact from the powerhouse at Sonoma to the pole on the south bank of the creek, at which point one of the wires sagged to within two or three feet of