The Vermont Supreme Court has sided with Green Mountain Power in a lawsuit stemming from a child who suffered severe burns after entering a fenced and locked substation in Springfield more than a decade ago.
The state’s highest court in its decision Friday ruled that Green Mountain Power was not liable for the child’s injuries.
Windsor County Superior Court Judge H. Dickson Corbett previously decided in Green Mountain Power’s favor and threw the case out.
Justice Harold Eaton Jr. authored the unanimous high court’s ruling backing the lower court’s decision.
“We decline to overrule our existing cases,” Eaton wrote, citing precedent protecting landowners from liability involving trespassers.
The Vermont Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case in March.
According to the summary of the case included as part of the Vermont Supreme Court’s decision, Ian Treadway was 12 years old in May 2013 when he and two friends were playing on footpaths near the South Street substation in Springfield.
The substation was enclosed by a chain-link fence topped by barbed wire with a padlocked gate, the decision stated. There were also several warnings mounted on the fence reading, “Danger,” and “High Voltage Keep Out,” the decision added. Treadway suffered severe burns after coming in contact with electricity inside the area, and a lawsuit alleged Green Mountain Power was negligent in the incident.
“Despite the indications that this infrastructure was built with the intent to keep people out and the visible and legible warning signs to that effect, plaintiff entered the substation,” the decision stated. “The exact method of plaintiff’s entry is unclear, but both parties agree that plaintiff was able to enter through a section of the gate, notwithstanding the lock.”
Inside the fence, according to the decision, Treadway either came into contact with the electrified equipment or came close enough to it for the electricity to arc from the equipment to him. As a result, the decision stated, his clothes caught fire and he suffered serious burns.
The lawsuit filed on Treadway’s behalf alleged his injuries were caused by Green Mountain Power’s negligence. The Vermont Supreme Court, in its ruling, rejected a call to establish a different liability standard for children when it comes to trespassing on the theory that children may not recognize certain dangers.
Eaton wrote that current case law provides reasonable protections to landowners and suggested that any changes to that principle could be made by lawmakers.
“For over a century,” Eaton wrote in the ruling, “our no-duty-to-trespassers law has harbored certainty, stability, and predictability within Vermont’s landowner liability law.”
In a story several months after the incident in 2013, the Associated Press reported that Treadway suffered second- and third-degree burns on his face and upper body.
The report also stated that Treadway was in a medically induced coma for part of his recovery and later still had trouble getting his arm back to a full extension.
Neither attorney John D. Willey, Jr., representing Treadway, nor Andrew C. Boxer, a lawyer for Green Mountain Power, could be reached Tuesday for comment.
