Padgett v. West Florida Elec. Coop., Inc

In Padgett v. West Florida Elec. Coop., Inc., 417 So. 2d 764, 766 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), this court explained that as a general rule utilities have a duty to exercise reasonable care in the location, use and maintenance of its lines, poles and equipment, but that in order to find that the maintenance and placement of a pole or other equipment to be the proximate cause of death, or injury it may be presumed, the death or injury must have "stemmed in a natural and continuous sequence from the placement and maintenance of the pole" or other equipment. The court reasoned that a car leaving the road surface would be considered an intervening cause, but that the existence of an intervening cause would relieve the utility of liability only if the occurrence constituting the intervening cause was not reasonably foreseeable. 417 So. 2d at 767.