Harris v. Gulf States Utilities Co.
Also decided on this docket: La. Ct. App. 1st Cir., September 25, 1978 363 So. 2d 541; La. Ct. App. 1st Cir., November 16, 1931 137 So. 756
Harris v. Gulf States Utilities Co., 391 So. 2d 1270 (La. Ct. App. 1st Cir. 1980).
Cited by
- Wiggins on Behalf of Wiggins v. Ledet 643 So. 2d 797 La. Ct. App. 4th Cir. 1994
- House v. Thompson 452 So. 2d 1195 La. Ct. App. 1st Cir. 1984
- Bridgewater v. State ex rel. Department of Corrections 422 So. 2d 1214 La. Ct. App. 1st Cir. 1982
- Entrevia v. Hood 413 So. 2d 954 La. Ct. App. 1st Cir. 1982
Opinion text
LOTTINGER, Judge, dissenting. I respectfully dissent. My disagreement is limited to the majority’s failure to find that Jeffrey Todd Harris was contributorily negligent. It does not follow that a seventeen year old boy would or should assume a transformer box is de-energized simply because an expert in the field of electrical engineering would make the same assumption. The test is not what an expert would assume, but what a reasonable 17-year-old under similar circumstances would do. Interestingly, the expert stated that he would not have touched anything inside the transformer box. The issue is simple. Was it reasonable for a seventeen year old boy, who studied electrical welding in school and who was told that the box was a transformer box, to grab hold of a component part inside the box? I believe it was highly unreasonable. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.