Fent v. Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway Co.

Citations

• 59 Ill. 349

Syllabus

<p>1. Demurrer to evidence—what is admitted thereby. Where a demurrer is interposed to tlie evidence, the rule is, that the demurrer admits not only all that the plaintiff’s testimony has proved, but all that it tends to prove.</p> <p>2. Remote and proximate cause—of the rule and its application. If fire is communicated from a railway locomotive to the house of A, and thence to the house of B, it is not a conclusion of law that the fire sent forth by the locomotive is to be regarded as the remote, and not the proximate, cause of the injury to B, but that is a question of fact, to be determined in each case by the jury under the instructions of the court.</p> <p>3. The rule is, to determine in every instance whether the loss was one which might reasonably have been anticipated from the careless setting of the fire, under all the circumstances surrounding the carelqss act at the time' of its performance. If loss has been caused by tlie act, and it ivas, under the circumstances; a natural consequence which any reasonable person could have anticipated, then the act is a proximate cause, whether the house burned was the first or tlie tenth, the latter being so situated that .its destruction is a consequence reasonably to be anticipated from setting the first on fire.</p> <p>4. If, on the other hand, the fire has spread beyond its natural limits by means of a new agency—if, for example, after its ignition, a high wind should arise, and carry burning brands to a great distance, by which a fire is caused in a place that would have been safe but for the wind—such ,a loss might fairly be set down as a remote consequence, for which the railway company should not be held responsible.</p> <p>5. In this case, which was an action against a railway company to recover for the loss of the plaintiff’s house by fire, alleged to have been occasioned by the negligence of the company, it appeared that a locomotive, with a train of freight cars, belonging to the defendant, in passing castw