Mahowald v. Minnesota Gas Co.
Minnesota Supreme Court
344 N.W.2d 856 (1984)
Six months after Alice and Michael Kannegieter (plaintiffs) moved into a new home, it exploded from a leaking gas main that Minnesota Gas Co. had installed seven years earlier and that utility contractor Barbarossa and Sons (defendants) had struck twice with a backhoe while installing water and sewer pipes; the first strike, which severed the main, was repaired by the gas company, while the second strike bent the main 16 feet from where the eventual leak occurred, and since the pipe remained intact, the gas company's repairman merely taped, sealed, and reburied it. Though the Kannegieters sued both defendants for negligence, they pleaded res ipsa loquitur only against the gas company; the trial court refused to instruct on res ipsa loquitur, the jury found neither defendant negligent, and the Kannegieters appealed.
Whether res ipsa loquitur creates a circumstantial inference that a gas distribution company must have been negligent if a leaking gas main causes an explosion, because the gas company holds a nondelegable duty to maintain and inspect its gas mains and greater knowledge and access to information about its distribution system.