Toledo, Wabash & Western Railway Co. v. Muthersbaugh

Citations

• 71 Ill. 572

Syllabus

<p>1. Remote and proximate cause — of the rule and its application— fire originating from sparks thrown from locomotive. Where property is destroyed by fire, caused by sparks thrown from the engine of a railroad company, through the negligence of its servants, and the destruction of the property is, under the circumstances of the case, a natural consequence, which any reasonable person could have anticipated, then the act,of throwing the sparks, which originated the fire, is a proximate cause, whether the property destroyed is the first or tenth, the latter being so situated that its destruction is a consequence reasonably to be anticipated from setting the first on fire, and the company will be liable.</p> <p>2. But if the destruction of the property is not the natural and proximate consequence of the escaping of the sparks, and consequent firing of the first building, then the company will not be liable.</p> <p>8. In this case, it appeared that a warehouse, standing near the railroad track, was set on fire from sparks escaping from an engine of the railroad company, and that, at the time, there was a strong wind blowing in the direction of the plaintiff’s stable, which was situated 101 rods from the warehouse, and that there was no combustible material intervening, but that the high wind carried brands from the burning warehouse to the stable of plaintiff, which caused it to take fire and burn up: Held, that the burning of the stable was not the natural and proximate consequence of the burning of the warehouse, and that the railroad company was not liable for the burning of the stable.</p>