A unanimous Appellate Division, First Department, panel has reinstated a lawsuit against a contractor accused of causing a pedestrian to suffer an electric shock when stepping on a manhole cover, though it has affirmed its dismissal as to Consolidated Edison. Lloyd Smith, was shocked at the intersection of Broadway and White Street in lower Manhattan. An electrical contractor, Petrocelli Electric Co., was doing work nearby, drawing power from Con Ed.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Martin Shulman (See Profile) dismissed the case, holding that there was no evidence the defendants were negligent. The panel reinstated it against Petrocelli under the common law doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, which holds that negligence can sometimes be inferred from the nature of an accident itself. To show negligence under res ipsa loquitur, a plaintiff must prove the accident is of a kind that does not normally occur without negligence, and that the agency causing the accident is exclusively controlled by the defendant.
