Otey v. Midland Valley Railroad

Citations

• 108 Kan. 755
• 197 P. 203
• 1921 Kan. LEXIS 260

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>.1. Railroad — Negligence—Fire from, Sparks of Engine — Damages—Evidence — Issue of Fact for Jury. The circumstantial evidence to support a cause of action for the burning of hay and for damages to an ■ ensuing crop of grass, alleged to have been caused by sparks from a railway engine, examined, and held sufficient to require the issue of fact to be submitted to a jury.</p> <p>■ 2. Negligence — Action Arising in Another State — Governed, by the Kansas Law of Evidence. In a cause of action arising in another state, the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain such an action when brought in this state is governed by the Kansas law of evidence.</p> <p>3. Same — Action Arose in Oklahoma — Immaterial where Engine Was Located. Where a railway engine at or hear the Kansas-'Oklahoma state line sets fire to property in Oklahoma, the cause of action arises in Oklahoma; and it is immaterial whether the engine was in Kansas, or on the state line, or in Oklahoma, when the escaping sparks from the engine set fire to the property.</p> <p>4. Same — Evidence of Other Fires Competent. It is not error to refuse a dogmatic instruction that the jury should not consider any testimony touching any other fire than the one alleged to have burned the property in question, when there was evidence that other fires occurred about the same time in the same locality which may have been caused by the same engine, when the significance of such evidence is properly limited by a suitable instruction given by the court.</p> <p>5. Same — Fire Loss — Lessee of Land Entitled to Recover. It is not error to refuse an instruction that a lessee of meadow and pasture land could not recover damages for injury to an ensuing crop of grass, where there is competent evidence to support the lessee's claim of injury thereto.</p>