Shafer v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Company

STOCKARD, Commissioner.

On the 14th day of July, 1952, Henry Raymond Shafer, then twenty-two years of age, met his death by electrocution. At the time he was an employee of Western Electric Company, a contractor engaged by Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (hereafter referred to as “Bell”), and was working in the Beaumont exchange building in St. Louis, Missouri. .

This suit for wrongful death was brought against Bell and- also against American Telephone and Telegraph Company (hereafter referred to as “A. T. & T.”). Plaintiff invoked the res ipsa loquitur doctrine. The principal allegation in…