127 Minn. 172 | Minn. | 1914
Plaintiff was employed as a millwright in one of the buildings in defendant’s factory in Winona. On July 2, 1913, he lost his life in a fire in the factory. On trial of this action for damages, plaintiff, the administrator of his estate, had a verdict. Defendant moved in the alternative for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial. Both being denied, defendant appealed. ■
The claim of plaintiff is, that this fire was caused by defendant’s
We see nothing in this case but questions of fact. They were fairly submitted to the jury, and the jury has settled them in favor of plaintiff.
We think the jury might fairly infer that the rubbish in the furnace was burned and that the building took fire from sparks from the smoke stack. No other reasonably probable theory is suggested by the evidence.
There is no direct evidence as to who startéd the fire in the furnace, but, under the practice prevailing, it was due to be fired by some employee of defendant. The jury might infer that the usual course of business was followed and that the rubbish was fired by some person in defendant’s employ.
The jury might well find that the accumulation of this combustible material for burning in this manner was, under the circumstances, negligence. They might also find that the interior construction of
In other words, the evidence is sufficient to sustain a finding that the origin and rapid spread of the fire were due to negligence on the part of defendant. There is also evidence of negligence in failure to provide sufficient means of escape in case of fire.
There is no direct testimony on the part of plaintiff as to where deceased was at the time the fire broke out. He was subject to call from five or six foremen, and his presence anywhere in either building would not be strange. He had been seen about both buildings at times not long before the fire. Of course no one could trace his course. Early in the paorning he had been directed to crate for shipment two separate pieces of machinery in the brick building. He had wholly finished one job and had not started on the other. His bench was his regular station and he had been seen there only a matter of minutes before the fire. After the fire, his body was found on the floor near his bench. There was evidently little time for escape for one near his bench after the fire was discovered. There was no stairway in this building. His bench was in the end of the building, remote from the regular exit, which consisted of a bridge across to the brick building, and which was the only easy means of escape. Other younger and more active men thereabout escaped only by jumping out of second-story windows or hanging out until help came. Deceased was a man 55 years old, very heavy, slow moving and not active, and if he was at his bench when the fire first broke out it is not strange that he failed to escape. Then, too, we have the presumption ever present that the deceased exercised due care to save himself from death, a presumption founded on a law of nature, the
There is evidence of two witnesses that after the fire was under way they saw deceased on the ground floor of the brick building. One of these men testified that deceased ran out of the first floor door •of the brick building, then made some exclamation about hk tools which were at his bench and declared his purpose of going in to get them. The testimony of these two witnesses contained some inherent improbabilities and it is contradicted in many respects. 'There was no practical way for deceased to go from the place where ■these men said they saw him to the place where his body was found, •except by going up a flight of stairs, then across the bridge or gangway connecting the second stories of the two buildings, and down through the frame building a distance of about 60 feet to the bench. ■On this bridge or gangway a number of employees were fighting fire. None of them saw deceased cross. In fact it seems impossible, in ■view of the rapidity with which the fire spread, that he could, after the fire started, have gone from the place where these men testified they saw him and reached the place where his body was found. These ■witnesses might have been mistaken as to the identity of the man they ■saw. One of them described this man as having a full beard. De■ceased had not a full beard. Another employee, said by these witnesses to have been with deceased at the time, was in court but was not called to corroborate them. These are but a few of the circum.stances that throw doubt on the testimony of these two witnesses.
We think the jury might reject the testimony of these witnesses (Hawkins v. Sauby, 48 Minn. 69, 50 N. W. 1015), and might find that deceased was at his bench when the fire started, and that he was .guilty of no negligence.
Order affirmed.