Electrical Injuries Part Three
I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.
Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.
In our last two episodes, we discussed a caller concerned about an injury he suffered while using an EV charging station when the charging cable shorted out and he received an electric shock and suffered second-degree burns on his hands.
In the first episode, we discussed the possibility of suing the electric utility company and discussed the utility company’s duty concerning members of the public coming into contact with uninsulated wires.
In the second episode, we discussed that the utility company likely would raise a defense called incurred risk.
Please recall that the caller made a point of saying that the charging cable looked like it may have been damaged by a prior user, but he decided to use it anyway.
If the utility company raises the incurred risk defense, it must not only show that the caller had actual knowledge of the precise danger in question and appreciated the danger. But also the utility company must prove that the caller incurred the risk voluntarily.
You might be thinking that proving voluntariness would be easy. But it is not.
Whether a choice is voluntary depends on whether it results from the free and untrammeled choice of the actor. Voluntariness also must be viewed from the subjective point of view of the actor.
What if it was very cold out, and the caller had a baby in the car, and felt that they had no choice but to try to use the cable to charge the car to get home?
In other words, the defense fails if the exposure to the danger is not in a true sense voluntary.
Historically, a plaintiff’s acceptance of a risk is not to be regarded as voluntary where the defendant’s wrongful conduct has forced upon him a choice of courses of conduct, which leaves him no reasonable alternative but to take his chance.
In other words, a defendant who, by his own wrong, has compelled the plaintiff to choose between two evils cannot be permitted to say that the plaintiff made the wrong choice.
I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”
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