Goar v. Village of Stephen
Minnesota Supreme Court
196 N.W. 171 (1923)
Minnesota Electric Distributing Company contracted with the Village of Stephen to reconstruct its electric system, warranting the work for one year while the village assumed the ongoing duty of inspecting the system and reporting defects to the company; the company installed a transformer with wires spaced too closely together, and over roughly eighteen months after the village accepted the completed work, wind friction wore through the wires, ultimately causing a high-voltage discharge into Goar's (plaintiff) home that seriously injured her. Goar won a verdict against both the village and the company, and both appealed.
Whether a party's prolonged failure to perform a contractually assumed duty to inspect and maintain electrical equipment becomes an independent superseding cause that relieves the original, negligent installer of liability for a resulting injury.