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Street v. Louisiana Pacific Corp.9/18/2002
PUBLISHED ADDENDUM ATTACHED.
The surviving spouse and children of an electrocution victim appeal the trial court's allocation of fault among the victim and the municipality which provided the electrical utility. The defendant answers the appeal, urging that La. R.S. 9:2800.10 should apply retroactively to absolve its liability because of the decedent's alleged criminal conduct at the time of his death. The defendant also asserts that the award for damages was abusively high. For the following reasons, we affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
Johnny T. Street ("Street") was electrocuted at Louisiana Pacific Corp. ("LP")'s paper mill on January 8, 1995, after climbing up the plant's electrical substation with a ladder to allegedly salvage copper wire. Street worked at the Winnfield mill for more than twenty years. He operated heavy equipment used for moving logs from the front of the mill to the old plywood plant at the back. The plywood plant fell into disuse before LP purchased the mill and was used only for storing logs. Some years earlier, when the plywood plant was operational, a subcontractor constructed the electrical substation to service the plywood plant.
The City of Winnfield ("City") operates its own electric utility and owns the electric distribution lines that feed into the three-phase substation. In 1992, the Mayor of Winnfield called the plant manager and told him the City wanted the transformers from the substation, as they were no longer needed to service the unused plywood plant. The plant manager told the mayor it was okay to send a crew for them. The mayor instructed the public works superintendent to retrieve the transformers, who in turn dispatched a five man crew to do the job .
The substation had been protected by a fence with warning signs ("Danger High Voltage" "Danger Keep Out") and a locked gate. It was established at trial that the fence was in place when the City's crew arrived to disconnect the transformers. In addition to taking the transformers, the crew also took the fence and the warning signs, thereby exposing the entire substation structure. The plaintiffs' evidence showed that even without the transformers, the substation was not disabled because the switches remained. The City's work crew did not de-energize the 13,800 volt line leading to the substation; neither did LP request that the City de-energize the line. The electrical line leading from the substation to the plywood plant was de-energized after the removal of the transformers.
About a year later, in September, 1993, the plywood plant burned to the ground in a three day long fire. Thereafter, LP employees began a company-directed salvaging operation for the plant rubble. LP sold the salvageable material to a scrap metal company. The electrical line from the substation to the plant was removed. The salvaging operations were completed several months before the accident.
On Sunday morning, January 8, 1995, Street drove to the mill and parked his truck near the guard shack in front. LP's security guard testified that seeing Street at the mill on Sunday was not unusual, and that other employees went by the plant on weekends. After they exchanged a few words, the guard left to make his rounds. When he returned, Street's truck was gone. He did not know whether Street was elsewhere on the mill property, but noted that since the fire, the back part of the property including the old plywood plant and substation was locked up.
Early that afternoon, the utility crew lineman investigating a power outage in a neighborhood near the plant discovered Street's body hanging from the substation supports. The autopsy report indicated th
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