PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Legal Newsline) – A Rhode Island School of Design student who lost her left hand while trespassing at an active electrical substation has lost her lawsuit against the property’s owner, National Grid.
The Rhode Island Supreme Court on June 6 ruled against Flavia Linnea Borgo, who had entered the property in Providence to take photos to complete a design class’ “cityscape project” that required her to capture different parts of the city and combined them into a painting.
She and fellow student Nicholas Meehan decided on April 5, 2014, to take photos at a National Grid site on the corner of Eddy and South streets.
The two sides argued over how easy it was for Borgo and Meehan to access the site, but the court noted it was irrelevant: She was a trespasser either way.
She was walking through a long corridor in one of the buildings on the property when she came by a door to a cabinet containing electrical equipment.
Meehan said Borgo’s body touched something inside the cabinet, creating sparks, a bright flash and a noise he couldn’t describe.
Borgo fell to the ground and experienced a seizure. She spent two months in the hospital, and her left hand had to be amputated.
She sued National Grid for negligence, alleging National Grid owed a duty to maintain the substation in a reasonably safe condition.
The case went on for four years when, in May 2020, National Grid filed a motion for summary judgment that said it owed no duty to an adult trespasser like Borgo. The motion was granted in October 2020.
The Supreme Court decided National Grid only would have owed Borgo a duty if it had discovered her in a position of peril on the property. Since no evidence showing that exists, the court ruled against her.
“(E)ven taken in the light most favorable to plaintiff, evidence of frequent trespassers at the substation, such as the existence of a ladder inside the building that, according to plaintiff, was in place when she arrived and was not placed there by National Grid, does not give rise to a duty owed to plaintiff by National Grid,” the decision says.