Shortt v. Los Angeles Gas & Electric Corp.

This is an appeal from an order of the superior court granting a new trial to the defendant on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict.

The plaintiff’s decedent was killed when his automobile struck an electric pole at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Twelfth Avenue. It was the theory of the plaintiff during the trial, supported by substantial evidence, that the decedent’s car ran into the pole because it was struck by an electric lamp which was hanging from a suspension wire near the center of the intersection; that said *512lamp suddenly fell as the decedent…