Supreme Court of California

In a wrongful death suit arising after an unlicensed contractor hired by defendants-homeowners to trim trees at their residence was electrocuted via a tool's contact with an overhead high voltage line, a court of appeals' reversal of a jury verdict for defendants is reversed where the court of appeal erred in finding that Penal Code section 385(b), which makes it a misdemeanor for any person, either personally "or through an employee", to move any tool or equipment within six feet of a high voltage overhead line, set forth a statutory duty of care owed by defendants-homeowners to the decedent.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/04/2008
• Published 08/04/2008

Judges

• BAXTER, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Law Offices of William L. Veen, The Veen Firm, Kevin Lancaster and Mary Anne Bendotoff, San Francisco, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Grant, Genovese & Baratta, Lance D. Orloff, Irvine;  Henderson & Borgeson, Daniel E. Henderson III and Jill L. Friedman, Santa Barbara, for Defendants and Respondents., Crandall, Wade & Lowe and William R. Lowe, Rancho Cucamonga, for State Farm General Insurance Company as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents.