Forster v. Rogers Bros.

Citations

• 247 Pa. 54
• 93 A. 26
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 781

Syllabus

<p>Nuisance — Public nuisance — Dynamite—Negligence—Ordinance • — Damages.</p> <p>1. While the mere possession and storage of dynamite for a lawful purpose, in a neighborhood where people reside, is not per se a public nuisance, the attending circumstances may make it such, as, for example, storing it in a negligent manner. In a case where the maintenance of a public nuisance is a matter complained of, if it is determined upon sufficient evidence that such a nuisance is maintained, no particular causal act of negligence, contributing to an explosion, need be proven in order to sustain a cause of action for damages sustained thereby.</p> <p>2. In the trial of an action to recover damages, occasioned by an explosion of dynamite, alleged to have been kept in such a way as to constitute a public nuisance, it was error to admit evidence of an ordinance relating to explosives, but not to the keeping or storage thereof, or an ordinance forbidding the erection of frame buildings within a prescribed district, and which had no connection with the alleged cause of the accident.</p> <p>3. In determining the amount of damages suffered in such' a case, it was error to admit evidence of the rental value of the property damaged, aS a separate item, or to allow an expert to express an opinion as to the value of the property before and after the explosion, based exclusively upon the amount of the rentals earned thereby. •</p> <p>Practice, Supreme Court — Appeals—Errors in admission of evidence — Motion to strike out — Review.</p> <p>4. When irrelevant or incompetent testimony is elicited by questions which are not objected to at the time they are put, and the trial is permitted to proceed with this testimony upon the record, the refusal of a request to strike it out, made after the witness has left the stand, will not be reviewed, although the refusal of the court when requested to instruct the jury to disregard the testimony would be assignable as error. Where, however, a motion to