Hanson v. Wells Van & Storage Co.

DOOLING, J.

Defendant Ken Wells, doing business as Wells Van & Storage Co., appeals from a judgment for plaintiffs for loss and damage by fire to household goods stored in defendant’s warehouse in San Francisco. It is admitted by defendant that the burden of proof that the fire was not proximately caused by defendant’s negligence was on defendant.

(George

v.

Bekins Van & Storage Co.,

33 Cal.2d 834. 839-841 [205 P.2d 1037].) To meet this burden defendant introduced evidence of the type and construction of the warehouse, the place and manner of storage in use therein and the precautions and safeguards employed. He also produced an expert witness, a member of the Division of Investigation of the San Francisco Fire Department. This witness, Lieutenant Kelly, after the fire made an investigation to ascertain if possible its cause. He testified that his department had discovered “no known cause of the fire”; that he found no evidence that the fire was caused by negligence and none that it was caused by a criminal act. Asked specifically if the fire could have been caused by a lighted cigarette, he answered: “I hardly think so,” and gave as his reason that “generally from my experience the cigarette is dropped and a fire generally breaks out, oh, three, four, five, six hours at most after . . . .” Lieutenant Kelly further testified that the manner of storage and the precautions taken by defendant were similar to those in general use in San Francisco by persons in the warehouse business.

The fire was discovered between 5 and 6 p. m. on a Sunday when the building was locked and unoccupied. The witness Jordan, in charge of the warehouse, was the last person shown to have been in the building. He locked it up and left about 2:30 p. m. on Saturday. The fire occurred and the damaged goods were stored on the second floor of the building. Neither

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Jordan nor any other employee went to the second story of the building after Friday afternoon.

The trial court found that defendants “failed to satisfactorily prove that the fire on their warehouse premises occurred without the fault or negligence ... of the defendants” and that the evidence “affirmatively shows negligence on their part, particularly in the leaving of the top floor uninspected for a matter of almost two days prior to the fire ; and that a fire under similar circumstances in another warehouse belonging to the defendants shows the defendants’ system of care was inadequate.”