# Ballinger v. Gascosage Electric Cooperative

> Supreme Court of Missouri · April 17, 1990 · 788 S.W.2d 506

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9778522

## Case

- **Full name:** Brent N. BALLINGER, Appellant, v. GASCOSAGE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, Tel-Elec Company, Respondents
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Missouri
- **Decided:** April 17, 1990
- **Citations:** 788 S.W.2d 506; 1990 Mo. LEXIS 44; 1990 WL 45735
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurring in part by Billings
- **Judges:** Blackmar, Rendlen, Higgins, Covington, Satz, Robertson, Billings, Holstein
- **Cited by:** 37 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- **Red flag:** Overruled on other grounds by Zueck v. Oppenheimer Gateway Properties, Inc., 809 S.W.2d 384 (1991).
- Negative treatments: 1
- Distinguished by: 0
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9778522

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- explaining that under the inherently dangerous activity exception, the employer "remains liable for the torts of the contractor[] simply for commissioning the activity. The liability attaches without any need for showing that the employer is in any respect negligent. It is pur…
- holding that where party has been negligent, a finding that the party was a joint venturer with plaintiff’s employer would preclude common law liability
- finding the activity of installing conductors in the vicinity of an energized electric line was inherently dangerous

## Opinion text

BILLINGS, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the principal opinion except as to that part which holds punitive damages cannot be recovered in this case. The reasons expressed by the Chief Justice to support the award of actual damages would, in my view, adequately support submission and recovery of punitive damages. Accordingly, I concur in part and dissent in part.

---

Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9778522. Public record. Not legal advice.