85 Me. 502 | Me. | 1893
An action on the case to recover damages for the destruction of plaintiff’s property by fire communicated by a locomotive engine used by the defendant company in its business. In his writ the plaintiff claims to recover on two grounds. First, by virtue of R. S-, c. 51, § 64; second, on the ground of negligence of the defendant and its agents and servants, in the condition and management of its locomotive, by reason of which the fire was set and communicated to his lumber.
The presiding judge at the trial, for reasons satisfactory to himself, ruled that the plaintiff could not recover under the provisions of the statute referred to, which read as follows : "When a building or other property is injured by fire communicated by a locomotive engine, the corporation using it is responsible for such injury, and it has an insurable interest in the property along the route, for which it is responsible, and may procure insurance thereon.” After the ruling of the presiding judge that the plaintiff had no remedy under this provision of the statute, the case was tried out upon the other claim set out in the writ that the fire was communicated by the locomotive used by the defendant, by reason of some defects in it or negligence of its servants managing it, for which the defendant was responsible. The verdict was for the plaintiff upon this ground.
The case comes up on a motion to set aside this verdict, and on exceptions. It is admitted by the counsel for the defendant that, if the ruling of the presiding judge that the plaintiff could not recover under the statute is erroneous, and the evidence is sufficient to authorize the jury to find that the fire was set and communicated by the use of the defendant’s locomotive, the question whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain the verdict on the claim of negligence is immaterial. And this presents the
On the facts disclosed and admitted by the defendant’s counsel, we think the plaintiff’ may recover in this case under the statute. There have been several cases before the court in this State involving the construction of this statute; but' we think none of them upon a state of facts like those claimed by the plaintiff and admitted by the defendant’s counsel in this case. The lumber destroyed was a large quantity of boards and other manufactured lumber stuck and piled by the plaintiff upon land in the vicinity of his mills, leased by him of the Bod well Water Power Company, of about twenty-five acres in extent. The defendant’s counsel as is their usual custom, very correctly state the facts upon this part of the case. "The place where the plaintiff’s boards were stuck before being used for the purpose to which he, and perhaps others, devoted it, was an uncultivated pasture. Afterwards, as the occasions of business required, boards were extensively stuck upon this place after being sawed at the adjacent mills, several tracks being put upon the place for the purpose of conveniently conveying the boards thereto and removing them therefrom. After being sawed the boards are put on cars by the plaintiff and others; the cars are then hauled to the sticking ground and the boards taken therefrom by the owners and stuck to remain until they are seasoned and sold. Then they are put back on to the cars by the owner and shipped to whatever destination he sees fit to send them. The boards are placed on the sticking ground as they are sawed. Nobody then has any means of knowing how long they will remain there and no notice was given to the railroad company as to the length of time they probably would remain there. As a matter of fact they frequently remain there for a considerable period of time, according to the exigencies of business, some boards of the plaintiff having been there for a year to a year and a half, while all of them had been there nearly six months.” The evidence shows that this piling-ground of the plaintiff had been used by him in connection with the manufacture of lumber at his mills in the manner stated, for six years and more,
The construction of this statute was first before the court in Chapman v. Railroad Company, 37 Maine 92. That action was to recover for the loss of a quantity of cedar posts piled by the plaintiff upon the land of another by his consent some five to eight rods from the railroad track. And after discussing the question of the construction of the statute, the court declared this conclusion : " The conclusion to which we have arrived is, that the liability of railroad corporations, under this statute, extends only to property permanently existing along their route, and capable of being insured, and that as to movable property, having no permanent location, the liability of such corporation is to be determined by the principles of the common law.”
In Pratt v. Railroad Company, 42 Maine, 579, the coui’t decided that the liability of the company under this statute was not confined to real estate but extended to the destruction of personal property as well. In Stearns v. Railroad Company, 46 Maine, 95, the plaintiff recovered for the destruction of his large chair factory and all the machinery, tools, and other apparatus necessary for the manufacture of chairs, and large quantities of lumber and other materials used in the manufacture of chairs, and large quantities of chairs, some of which were wholly and others partially completed. In Bean v. Railroad Company, 63 Maine, 294, the plaintiff recovered for a stock of goods in a store occupied by him near the railroad track.
The last case in this State, in which this statute was involved, is Lowney v. Railway Company, 78 Maine, 479. It was an action to recover for the destruction of some sleepers owned by the plaintiff and piled near the railroad track, to be delivered
The court in Massachusetts has put a different construction upon the statute of that state in the same terms as ours, holding it to apply to all property of every kind and in any place where fire may • be communicated by a locomotive engine. It does not admit any of the exceptions adopted by our court in Chapman v. Railroad Company, above cited, and followed to some extent, at least, in the cases subsequently named. Hart v. Railroad Company, 13 Met. 99 ; Bassett v. Railroad Company, 145 Mass. 129, and cases there cited.
And so in New Hampshire, Hooksett v. Railroad Company, 38 N. H. 244. And so in Vermont on a similar statute, Cleaveland v. Railroad Company, 42 Vermont, 449. The same construction of the Vermont statute is held by the Supreme Court of the United States, in Grand Trunk Railway Company v. Richardson, 91 U. S. 454.
We do not intend, however, to overrule any of the previous decisions of this court upon the construction of the statute involved. They do not conflict with our decision upon the facts of this case. Each case should be decided upon its o?vn facts ; and we feel clear that no previous decision of this court determines that the railroad company is not liable under our statute in a case like this. It cannot be properly said that the plaintiff’s lumber piled on his piling-place, occupied by him in the prosecution of his business as a lumber manufacturer from year to year in such quantities was, placed there for a temporary pur
"We think the evidence is clearly sufficient to authorize the finding of the jury, necessarily included in their verdict, that the fire ivas communicated from the defendant’s locomotive. This conclusion renders it entirely unnecessary to consider whether the evidence upon the question of negligence was sufficient to authorize the verdict rendered.
The defendant has some exceptions to the ruling of the presiding judge on matters of law.
Its counsel in their argument rely upon two only.
First, they claim that the admission of the evideuce from several witnesses, tending to show fires communicated by the locomotives used on the defendant’s road at different times about the same time that the plaintiff’s lumber was destroyed and in the same vicinity, was erroneous ; that it should be confined to the particular locomotive which passed over the road just before the fire, and which it is claimed communicated it. We think its competency, where the issue is whether the fire was communicated from a locomotive, is clearly established by courts of the highest authority. It tends to show the capacity of the inanimate thing to set fires along the road, and when a fire is discovered soon after a locomotive has passed, and there is no evidence tending to show that it might have been caused in some other way, it authorizes the inference that it was caused by the locomotive. Grand Trunk Railroad Company v. Richardson, 91 U. S. 454, and cases cited. Crocker v. McGregor, 76 Maine, 284; Loring v. Railroad Company, 131 Mass. 469.
It is urged in behalf of the defendant that evidence showing the action of locomotives, other than the one that set the fire, should be limited to cases where the plaintiff is unable by
Since the argument the defendant’s counsel, with the consent of the’ counsel for the plaintiff, has called the attention of the court to a recent case in Pennsylvania, in which the doctrine is very thoroughly discussed and authorities cited and quoted from ; and the admissibility of the evidence in a case like this is sustained by that court, which declares that such evidence should be confined to the negligent operation of the engines of the company at or about the time of the fire with such reasonable latitude, before and after the occurrence, as is sufficient to enable such proofs to be practicable. Henderson v. Railroad Co. 144 Penn. St. 461.
The second point raised by the exceptions is the admission of
Motion and exceptions overruled. Damages to be assessed at PTisi Prius as stipulated by the parties.