Summary of a Recent
Judicial Development in
Agriculture and Urbanization

Damage Award Upheld in Stray Voltage Lawsuit

Ross H. Pifer
National AgLaw Center Graduate Assistant

In Allen v. Wisconsin Public Service Corp., 694 N.W.2d 420, 427 (Wisc. Ct. App. 2005), dairy farmer Russell Allen received a jury award of "$750,000 in economic damages and one million dollars in nuisance damages" in a stray voltage lawsuit filed against his electric company. The electric company argued that the award of nuisance damages was improper because "the jury instruction did not properly define the requisites for nuisance damages." Id. at 426. The Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, however, rejected this argument as the electric company had not "objected to the jury instruction or . . . offered an alternative jury instruction that defined nuisance damages." Id. The court also concluded that the one million dollar award to the dairy farmer for nuisance damages was "justified under the circumstances of this case." Id. at 427.

The case was decided on February 15, 2005; this summary was posted June 10, 2005.



  

This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Agreement No. 59-8201-9-115. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The National AgLaw Center is a federally funded research institution located at the University of Arkansas School of Law, Fayetteville.

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