Lehman v. Maryott & Spencer Logging Co.

Citations

• 108 Wash. 319
• 184 P. 323
• 1919 Wash. LEXIS 880

Syllabus

<p>Negligence (3)—Fires—Liability—Care to Prevent Spreading. Liability for starting a fire on one’s own land, wbicb spread to adjoining property, must be based on negligence, i. e., failure to act as a reasonably prudent person would under like circumstances.</p> <p>Same (3, 38)—Fires — Failure to Control — Evidence—Sufficiency. There is no evidence to justify a finding of negligence by a logging company in burning a camp-site under direction of a Federal forest ranger, where, for two or three days there had been no fire except a smouldering root near the center of the camp which could not be extinguished, and an experienced watchman was left and visited the property hourly prior to the fire and discovered it soon after it broke out, and it could not be checked because of an unusual wind.</p> <p>Same (3, 15)—Fires—-Proximate and Intervening Cause. A strong wind but for which no loss would have occurred, and which arose some days after a logging company had burned a camp-site and extinguished all fire except a smouldering root, is an intervening cause which relieves from responsibility for the original fire, even if defendant had been guilty of negligence.</p>