201 F. 859 | 8th Cir. | 1912
One of the statutes of the state of Minnesota charges each railroad corporation owning or operating a railroad in that state with responsibility in damages to any person whose property is injured or destroyed by fire communicated, directly or indirectly, by the locomotive engines in use upon the railroad it uses or operates. Laws of Minnesota 1909, c. 378, p. 454 (Rev. Laws Supp. 1909, § 2041). The plaintiffs below, who are the defendants in error here, brought their separate actions against the Canadian Northern Railway Company, a corporation, under this law, to recover damages which they alleged were inflicted upon their respective properties by a fire which they averred was set by one of the company’s engines on September 29, 1910. The three actions were tried together by stipulation upon the same evidence, and verdicts and judgments were rendered against the company, which it challenges on two grounds: That there was no substantial evidence to sustain the finding that the fire which started on September 29, 1910, was
The record before us discloses substantial evidence tending to show these facts: The fire was first discovered on the north side of the railroad track about half way from Williams to Cedar Spur within 15 minutes after a heavy freight train had passed over this track: The track between these places was straight, the distance between them was 2% miles and one could see along the track from one place to the other. The summer and early fall of the year 1910 were dry, and numerous fires had been, and some were, burning in the vicinity. The right of way of the railroad company on the sides of the track was incumbered with weeds, grass, brush, and wood. The wind was blowing from a southerly direction. About the time the freight train left Williams, the witness Dahl started to walk along the track from Cedar Spur to that place, and the witness Senyohn started to walk along the track from Williams to Cedar Spur. There was no wagon road between these places, and pedestrians customarily traveled between them on the railroad right of way. When Dahl and Senyohn started, they looked along the track and right of way, but saw no one between them, except those upon the freight train, and no fire or smoke on the right of way, except the smoke which the engine emitted. There was a downgrade from Williams to Cedar Spur, and it was unnecessary to work the engine, and it was not worked between these places, but some of the way it sent forth some smoke. A few minutes after the engine passed a point midway between these stations, the two witnesses, who were walking upon the track toward each other, saw smoke rising at that point on the north side of the track, and a few minutes later, when they reached the point from which the smoke arose, a brisk fire was burning there. Sparks had been seen at other times, which were thrown from freight engines of the defendant during the summer of 1910, which lived until they reached the ground, and fires had started by the side of the track a few minutes after engines of the defendant had passed. The engine which drew the freight train at the time the fire in question started .was equipped with the best devices to arrest sparks. These devices were in perfect order, the engine was carefully and properly operated, and suitable fuel to prevent the emission of sparks was used to drive it. There was testimony in the case of other facts, but of none that can change the deduction that must be drawn from those which have been recited.
There was no error in the trial of this case, and the judgments below must be affirmed.
It is so ordered.