Exactly. No one with more that a day's experience in construction and half a brain isn't going to be concerned about what might be behind a wall finish. And with all the nifty gadgets on the market today for "seeing" what's in the wall, there's no excuse.
If you open the wall, see the stack, close the wall cut into the wall and hit something then it's on you.
Dont forget surge protection
However, it's difficult to use the "It shouldn't have been there!" defense after admitting having seen it there.
Yes. Most every 60 amp service installed in the Richmond area in the 40s /mid 50s had the weather head up on a wall, then the SE cable (typically #6 copper) went inside the wall, came back out for the small meter base, then back into the wall to wherever the 60 amp Murray (or Zinsco, etc) panel was located. In dad's house that was from the peak of the Cape Cod gable to he meter base at ~ 6 feet above ground level to the 60 amp panel in the basement. Back in the 60/70s I could point out thousands of these installations in Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield counties.
And past that, there's a legal concept of "knew or should have known"- if a "reasonable" person would have checked, saying "I didn't know it was there" doesn't go far. And it also doesn't matter whether the thing was compliant or not; all that matters is that the thing was damaged.
