Moore v. Lanier

Citations

• 52 Fla. 353

Syllabus

<p>1. Grounds of a demurrer interposed to a declaration but not argued in tbe appellate court will be treated as abandoned.</p> <p>2. If a declaration wholly fails to state a cause of action the appellate court may take notice of. it even though there be no demurrer.</p> <p>3. In an action brought to recover damages for property destroyed through the negligence of another, the declaration should allege facts showing the negligence complained of to be a proximate cause of the injury sustained.</p> <p>4. Proximate cause is that which naturally leads to or produces or contributes directly to produce a result such as might be expected by any reasonable and prudent man as likely to directly and naturally follow or flow out of the performance or non-performance of any act.</p> <p>5. When a person undertakes to connect a store room with a gas main by means of pipes, and in doing so carelessly • and negligently permits gas to escape from the pipes into the store room and an explosion of the gas occurs therein, such negligent person is liable, in the absence of an intervening independent cause, even though the ignition was caused by some one other than the plaintiff or his agents, since, the gas, so negligently allowed to 'escape into the store room, was a present and directly contributing cause of the explosion; a result such as might have been expected by any reasonable and prudent man as likely to directly and naturally follow from the escape of gas into a store room.</p> <p>Shackleford; C. J. and Cockrell, J., dissenting.</p> <p>6. In an action for damages in .negligence cases the plaintiff is not required to negative his own negligence, but the negligence of the plaintiff is a matter to be pleaded by the defendant.</p> <p>7. A declaration that alleges that the defendant contracted to connect the store room of the plaintiff with acetylene gas mains by service pipes for illuminating purposes and “well knowing that the said acetylene gas was highly explosive, did so neglig