Mickle v. Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co.
Mickle v. Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff (appellant) sued defendant company on account of injuries sustained by him when he tripped and fell over a wire that lay loosely wrapped around one of defendant’s poles in a public street. The case was tried upon the complaint and a plea of not guilty. The trial court gave the general charge for defendant.
The complaint alleges negligence. The question, then, is whether defendant owed plaintiff, who was passing along the walk, any duty to know and rectify the dangerous probability of the wire in its situation on the ground around the bottom of the pole. It may be conceded that there was a duty on the part of the person, natural or artificial, having control of the wire, to abstain from leaving it in a place of public or customary travel in such shape as to make it a source of danger to pedestrians in the ordinary and proper use of the way. But defendant’s pole per se was unobjectionable, and defendant had nothing to do with the wire. Defendant’s duty being to maintain its poles and wires in a safe condition, that duty could not be enlarged by
The acknowledged duty of persons, using wires in places where others may be expected to come in contact with them, to guard against the diversion of known dangerous currents of electricity, as illustrated in McKay v. Southern Bell Telephone Co., 111 Ala. 337, 19 South. 695, 31 L. R. A. 589, 56 Am. St. Rep. 59, furnishes no argument to the contrary of what we have held in this case. Whether a wire is so arranged as to' take up or discharge a current which it ought not to take up or discharge is a matter of the condition of the wire itself, and if such danger may be reasonably anticipated the person owning or controlling the Avire ought to take care that no harm results. The trial court did not err in giving the charge, and the judgment must be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.