108 Ga. 165 | Ga. | 1899
Myers sued the Southern Railway Company in the justice’s court, for damages claimed to have been sustained on
The present record presents a case very similar to the case of Railroad Company v. Edmondson, 101 Ga. 747, where it was ruled that in order “to authorize the plaintiff to recover damages from a railroad company for the destruction of property by fire caused by the running of its locomotive, it must appear that the fire was occasioned by the fault or negligence of the-company or its agents.” It was further ruled that it must be established that the fire was occasioned by the operation of the-locomotive, before negligence on the part of the company would be presumed, and that where the evidence only raised a suspicion that the fire was communicated to the property destroyed by the passing engine, and the uncontradicted evidence was-that the engine was equipped with a proper spark-arrester in good condition and was in good order, and no evidence appearing that in the handling of the engine sparks were emitted or fire thrown therefrom at the time, before, or after the conflagration for which damages are sought, a legal recovery could not be had. Even if it be conceded in the present case that-the plaintiff’s property was destroyed by fire communicated by