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Delaware Elec. Co-op.11/20/1997
Upon Appeal from the Superior Court. Affirmed
In this appeal from the Superior Court. we consider whether a jury verdict finding an electric cooperative to be solely, liable for injuries to an employee of a mobile home installation company is against the great weight of the evidence. We also consider whether the jury s award of damages was excessive. We conclude that, under the circumstances of this case, the jury's findings on proximate causation, specifically its rejection of an intervening or superseding cause, are not contrary to the great weight of the evidence. We further conclude that. in view of the catastrophic injuries received by the plaintiff, tile jury's verdict is not excessive.
I
The jury could reasonably have found the following facts. During the summer of 1990. file appellee/plaintiff-below. Darryl Duphily ("Duphily"), was employed by New Look Homes, Inc. ("New Look"), a company that sells and installs double-wide mobile homes ("double-wides"). Double-wides are prefabricated, single story houses that are transported in sections to a home site and erected as a single structure.
In June 1990, William Hamilton purchased a double-wide from New Look for placement on his lot at White House Beach, a mobile home park near Millsboro. Delaware. On August 7. 1990. New Look delivered his double-wide in two sections. To place the sections on the lot. the delivery truck had to back each section from an adjacent road. over a speed bump, across a strip of grass, and under a set of three parallel utility lines. The lines consisted of a phase wire charged with 7200 volts of electricity, a neutral line approximately eight feet below the phase wire, and a low voltage coaxial television cable approximately three feet below the neutral wire. Delaware Electric Cooperative, Inc. ("DEC") owned and maintained the phase wire and the neutral line, the highest two utility lines. The television cable, the lowest line. was owned by Simmons Communication Company and Mid-Shore CATV, Inc. (collectively "Simmons").
Upon delivery, John Starke ("Starke"), the president of New Look, planned to back in one of the thirteen and one-half feet high sections while three employees gave him directions. When it appeared that the unit would snag on the neutral and television lines, Duphily, on his initiative but with his employer's knowledge and tacit approval, climbed atop the double-wide. With his bare hands. Duphily lifted the television cable and neutral wire to allow the double-wide to pass under these lines. Duphily. walking backwards along the edge of the roof holding the lower two lines in his bare hands, lost his balance when the truck passed over a speed bump. Instinctively, he dropped the lower lines and grabbed the uppermost 7200 volt phase wire. The electric shock he received caused permanent injury to his leg and the eventual amputation of his left forearm.
During a storm one month before the accident, a tree had fallen on the lines. DEC had sent a crew to repair the damage that night. By flashlight, the crew had resagged the wires but at a height apparently below industry standards. The parties dispute which lines were repaired that evening. DEC contends that only the upper phase wire was resagged. Duphily asserts that all three lines were resagged by DEC.
Duphily originally filed a negligence action against Simmons and DEC for failing to keep the electrical and television lines at the minimum height required by the National Electric Safety Code ("NESC"). Duphily also sought recovery, from White House Beach. Inc. ("White House"), the entity that operated the mobile home park. New Look could not be a joint tortfeasor under Delaware's wor
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