148 Cal. App. 2d 895 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1957
Plaintiff: Tommie Reynolds, a minor, brought this action against respondents to recover damages for injuries sustained when he was made blind by an explosion of dynamite caps on September 15, 1947. On July 25, 1955, a judgment of the court sitting without a jury was entered in favor of respondents, and plaintiff appeals.
Prior to the accident, appellant’s father and his family were living in a dwelling house located on orchard property owned by Franz Salmonson, his wife and their son Herbert. Franz and Herbert had operated the ranch for others from 1943 and became the owners a few months before the accident. Reynolds, senior, was employed by Franz and Herbert as a farm laborer. The dwelling house was furnished under the terms of his employment. A pump house, housing an electrically driven irrigation pump, was located about 60 feet from the dwelling. It was not kept locked. At the time of the explosion, appellant was 5 years of age, and on that day he, his brother Ronnie, aged 7, and a cousin Larry, also aged 7, were playing around the pump house. They entered it as they had frequently done. That they frequently entered the pump house was known to Herbert and Franz, who had warned them to stay out. On September 13th, the children had entered the pump house and had found a coat hanging on the wall inside. In the pocket of the coat they had found a can which contained dynamite caps. They had no knowledge of the danger of these caps. Ronnie took the can from the coat, placed it on a crossbeam in the pump house, and when the children entered on September 15th they took the can from the pump house and endeavored to open it by pounding on it with a piece of iron. The caps exploded, causing the injury for which appellant sued.
The evidence further discloses that in February, 1943, Franz purchased dynamite caps, which were used in blasting operations on a neighboring farm, operated by Franz and Herbert for its owners. When the blasting was over, some caps were unused, and these Herbert took, announcing his intention of disposing of them in the river. After the accident and preceding this action, Herbert died, but it was in evidence that, having announced his intention of disposing of the caps, he drove easterly toward the Feather River in
The trial court made findings that the caps found in the pump house by the children were not the caps purchased four years before by Franz for blasting operations on the neighboring ranch • that the owners of the property and their employees had no occasion or reason to enter the pump house when the pump was not being used; that the pump had not been used for about six weeks prior to the accident; and that none of the Salmonsons had entered the pump house during that period, and in the exercise of ordinary care of the premises were not required to do so; that the caps were not in the pump house at any time prior to the time they were found there by the children; that the respondents, neither by or through themselves or their agents or employees, had carelessly or at all kept the caps in the pump house; that when the Reynolds family moved into the dwelling house the caps were not there nor were they thereafter placed there by the respondents or by any person for whose acts they were responsible. Finally, the court found as a fact that respondents had not been careless or negligent in regard to the maintenance of the pump house, and that the explosion and the injuries were not the result of any negligence on their part.
The sole contention on the appeal is that the foregoing findings are not supported by the evidence. The contention cannot be sustained. From the fact that respondents had used caps four years before and had some left, from respondents’ possession and control of the premises where the caps were found, from the improbability that a stranger would trespass and leave his coat and the caps in the pump house, from these and other circumstances the trial court could have
We find no error in the record.
The judgment is affirmed.
Peek, J., and Schottky, J., concurred.