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[IN]My friends landlord consequentially electrocuted her cat. (self.legaladvice)

ghettounicorn が 投稿

I'm posting on behalf of her

"My cat was electrocuted yesterday due to an exposed wire left unattended by my landlord. He took out the dishwasher and did nothing with the wire. Her face is swollen and mouth is burnt. I did take her to the vet, however they wanted to keep her for a day and charge me $1600 so I opted to take her home. Bought some pain medicine and am looking for ways to keep her comfortable. She's doing so much better than when we found her, but it still breaks my heart to see her this way. I also feel that my landlord should have to pay the emergency vet bill but he refuses. Any advice for my cat or me would be appreciated!"

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[–]TheCatGuardian 55ポイント56ポイント  (28子コメント)

Did he take out the dishwasher to replace it immediately? Did she know that they were doing this?

[–]ghettounicorn[S] 54ポイント55ポイント  (21子コメント)

The wires are actually still exposed! I know it's crazy. here's a live real time picture of the situation.

[–]meoctzrle 104ポイント105ポイント  (2子コメント)

First step, flip off the corresponding breaker.

[–]opk 49ポイント50ポイント  (1子コメント)

This probably should have been done before the start of work even began. Incredibly irresponsible.

[–]flapjackKing 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Exactly, wouldn't that make the landlord responsible for any damage he caused to her property and/or cat? There's no reason to completely disregard safety when doing electrical work. That shows a complete lack of regard for the tenant's safety.

[–]TheCatGuardian 15ポイント16ポイント  (17子コメント)

Did she get a notification from the landlord that they would be coming in to do the work?

[–]WeeblsLikePie 113ポイント114ポイント  (16子コメント)

It doesn't really matter does it? Leaving hot wires exposed like that without capping them with wire nuts or electrical tape is clearly negligent, regardless of whether notice was given or not. No one who is taking basic precautions would leave a job in that state for more than a few minutes.

[–]jellicle 16ポイント17ポイント  (0子コメント)

Nobody would leave wires in that state (hot, exposed) at all, for even one second.

Wires might be exposed while the breaker is off, but would be capped before the breaker is turned back on.

Clearly negligent.

[–]neiltc 12ポイント13ポイント  (3子コメント)

We can't really tell from the picture, but considering the cats mouth is burnt it's possible that the wires were capped or covered and the cat chewed on them.

[–]mywan 44ポイント45ポイント  (1子コメント)

I've done lots of electrical work. You absolutely can tell that these wires aren't capped or taped. You can also clearly see that the insulation is stripped back nearly a half inch, which is expected. This is clearly negligence. Sometimes it makes sense to turn a breaker back on before the work is completed, if other things on the same circuit are needed and you have to leave for an unknown period of time. But not capping/tapping the wires, cost a few cents, is clearly negligent.

[–]brownbutterquiche 7ポイント8ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yes, this is mindblowingly stupid.

[–]Trailmagic 16ポイント17ポイント  (0子コメント)

I doubt the cat cleanly removed all that stuff without leaving bits of tape or plastic, had they actually been there. The cat would stop as soon as it was shocked, and OP wouldn't have been cleaning up around a wire they know is hot. OP also says it was completely exposed when left by the maintenance person.

[–]hwfelix 16ポイント17ポイント  (0子コメント)

I think by undertaking an electrical repair in someone's home, be it as a landlord required to do so or voluntarily, you have a duty to not leave an exposed live wire.

So if friend knows that cat didn't chew through something, I'd tell her to talk to a housing lawyer or file a small claim for the vet bill. Would need to confirm that local housing law and the lease itself wouldn't do anything screwy.

[–]Draqur 49ポイント50ポイント  (0子コメント)

Pain medicine for the cat? Please tell me it was prescribed by the vet. OTC pain medicine in most cases is lethal to cats/dogs. I think asprin is the only non-lethal OTC pain medicine for cats, in small small doses. Acetaminophen is highly lethal, a 500mg pill will kill most cats if they're ~6-7lbs.

[–]NevaMO 12ポイント13ポイント  (1子コメント)

Did the landlord take the wires off the dishwasher while the wires were still live?! If not, why the hell would he turn the breaker back on?

[–]oddmanout 16ポイント17ポイント  (0子コメント)

It was probably connected to other appliances in the kitchen. Still no excuse thought. How hard is it to wrap some damn wires?

[–]gtapacs 76ポイント77ポイント  (22子コメント)

Electrocution is a portmanteau of the words electro and execution. Your cat, being alive, was not electrocuted!

[–]Only_A_Bear 40ポイント41ポイント  (1子コメント)

You're going to get down voted for being "insensitive" but you make a very valid point that is often overlooked in this sub. Language use is very important, even more so in legal application. For example saying that the landlord electrocuted your friends cat is spreading a falsehood. Saying that the landlord's negligence caused an electric shock to your friends cat is not.

[–]rankinfile 9ポイント10ポイント  (0子コメント)

American uses that definition. British includes injury.

[–]WangEnlargement 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yeah my heart sank when I read the title. I was glad to see the cat is still alive.

[–]erfling 7ポイント8ポイント  (3子コメント)

Meaning is created through usage, not etymology.

[–]tapharoot 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yeah I think we're well past the point of electrocution meaning death by electricity. Nobody who isn't a intellectual douchebag means that when they say it.

[–]sylvan 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

And people are free to correct others on their usage, to influence how that meaning develops.

[–]erfling 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Of course they are, it just doesn't really work. A lot of places even have organizations dedicated to try and do it. The Academie Francaise thinks they determine the grammar of the French language, but they don't

[–]TotallyOffTopic_ 10ポイント11ポイント  (7子コメント)

Don't know why you're being down voted. It's true, electrocuted means dead. The cat experienced an electric shock.

[–]boomberrybella 18ポイント19ポイント  (6子コメント)

Probably because it's not really important to the matter at hand, it isn't legal advice, people understood the situation regardless of the wrong term, and it's a little insensitive to boot

[–]Not_An_Ambulance 4ポイント5ポイント  (2子コメント)

It's the friend's cat. If it were her cat I'd get the whole "lets not be insensitive" thing... but, people die every day. If we limit our discussion every time we know of a person or pet being injured we will never get anywhere.

[–]TotallyOffTopic_ 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

Further to that why do people post 'on behalf of a friend' as if it will change the outcome of the advice in any uncanny way if the post was directly from them?

[–]Not_An_Ambulance -4ポイント-3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Eh.. if it were true I would probably say it if I were posting on this account... of course... I would probably ask my question over at r/lawyers if I had one myself... but, most people can't get there.

[–]TotallyOffTopic_ -1ポイント0ポイント  (2子コメント)

If you are a lawyer and saying the correct terminology doesn't matter...

[–]boomberrybella 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

You asked why they were being downvoted, so I speculated. I don't care one way or another.

[–]SchalkeSpringer 3ポイント4ポイント  (2子コメント)

Google disagrees:

e·lec·tro·cute

əˈlektrəˌkyo͞ot/

verb past tense: electrocuted; past participle: electrocuted

injure or kill someone by electric shock.

Wikipedia also says:

The word is also sometimes used to describe non-fatal injuries due to electricity.

Emphasis mine. Can someone weigh in on whether the injure is correct or only kill?

[–]EntertheOcean 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

This my two cents on it, so don't take my word for it.

I believe the actual, literal definition of the word "electrocution" is death by way of electric shock.

However, common usage of the word to mean injury by way of electric shock had changed the original meaning of the word. This happens all the time. Language evolves.

[–]A_Soporific -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

Both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster only list "kill" or "execute". Neither lists injure.

I would argue that the non-fatal instances are non-standard uses of the term.

[–]sectorsight 4ポイント5ポイント  (1子コメント)

Not legal related. Of you died via electrical currents by accident, not an execution, are you technically electrocuted?

[–]confirmd_am_engineer 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yes. Electrocution is death by electrical shock. As this incident did not result in death, it's an electrical shock and not an electrocution.

[–]VanillaAphrodite 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Electrocute is defined as injuring or killing by electric shock so I think it isn't wrong in this case.

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Original Post:

Author: /u/ghettounicorn

[IN]My friends landlord consequentially electrocuted her cat.

I'm posting on behalf of her

"My cat was electrocuted yesterday due to an exposed wire left unattended by my landlord. He took out the dishwasher and did nothing with the wire. Her face is swollen and mouth is burnt. I did take her to the vet, however they wanted to keep her for a day and charge me $1600 so I opted to take her home. Bought some pain medicine and am looking for ways to keep her comfortable. She's doing so much better than when we found her, but it still breaks my heart to see her this way. I also feel that my landlord should have to pay the emergency vet bill but he refuses. Any advice for my cat or me would be appreciated!"

[–]testiclelice -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

I think the landlord might argue that given the injuries, the cat chewed the wires.

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