Chicago & Alton Railroad v. Pennell

Citations

• 94 Ill. 448

Syllabus

<p>1. Negligence—in allowing sparks from engine to communicate fire. The law requires a railroad company, in operating its trains, to use every possible precaution, by the use of all the best and most approved mechanical inventions, to prevent loss from the escape of fire or sparks along the line of its road, and such company will be liable for a loss by fire caused by a neglect of such duty, when the owner of the property destroyed is himself free from negligence.</p> <p>2. A party who erects a building on or near a railroad track knows the dangers incident to the use of steam as a motive power, and must be held to assume some of the hazards connected with its use on such thoroughfares. While the party has the right to erect a building near the track, and in an exposed position, yet if he does so, he is bound to a higher degree of care in providing proper means to protect his property from fire than a person in a less exposed position, and is also required to use all reasonable means to save his property in cg.se a fire should occur.</p> <p>3. Same—negligence of owner of building burned. Where fire is communicated to a building situate near a railroad track, through the negligence of a railroad company, the owner can not recover for the loss of such property as he could easily and without danger have saved from destruction.</p> <p>4. Same—comparative. In an action against a railroad company to recover the value of a building erected in close proximity to the track, and its furniture, which are burned through the negligence of the company, an instruction placing the right of recovery alone upon the defendant's negligence, and which entirely ignores the question of due care on the part of the plaintiff in trying to save the property destroyed or some part thereof, is erroneous.</p> <p>5. Same—a question of'fact. Negligence is the opposite of due care and prudence. It is the omission to use the means reasonably necessary to avoid injury to others, and is not a legal q