Toledo, Wabash & Western Railway Co. v. Larmon

Citations

• 67 Ill. 68

Syllabus

<p>1. TTeslibeitce—degree of ca/re required to prevent injury by communicatingfire. While it is lawful for railroad corporations to use steam as a motive power, and to generate the same by fire, the law holds them to the exercise of a very high degree of care and skill in the use of these dangerous and most effective appliances, to prevent the emission of fire sparks from their engines, and in the employment and retention of servants in charge of them, so as to prevent loss to property. Where they have exercised the highest degree of care and skill in this respect, if loss occurs it must fall upon the owner.</p> <p>2. Same—railroads, not insurers against injury by fire. In an action against a railway company to recover for a warehouse burned by the emission of sparks from one of its engines, the court, at the instance of the plaintiff, charged the jury that, “ it is the duty of the defendant, and was its duty, to operate its engines and locomotives and run the same so as to guard against any accident by fire, and to employ such machinery and other agencies for safety to property as might be necessary to avoid accidental destruction, whether such machinery was then in common use, or not, on railroadsHeld,, that the instruction was erroneous, as the principle it announces would make the defendant a guarantor or insurer against accidents by fire.</p> <p>3. Saaie—escape of fire is only prima facie evidence of negligence. In the same case the court instructed the jury that if the destruction of the plaintiff’s warehouse was caused by fire escaping from the engine of the defendant while being operated by its servants, such escape of fire is, of itself, evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant: Held, that the instruction ought to have been qualified before being given, as the statute only makes such fact prima facie evidence of negligence—not conclusive.</p> <p>4. Instructions—whether/' error in one is cured by another. 'Where one instruction states the defendan