Signorelli v. Potter

California Supreme Court Oct 26, 1954 No. L. A. 23253Published

Before: Traynor

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Holding. The court affirmed the judgment for plaintiffs, holding that the trial court's finding that the plaintiffs' negligent maintenance of the butane tank was not a proximate cause of the fire was supported by the evidence and could not be disturbed.

Issues

Whether the plaintiffs' negligent maintenance of a butane tank in close proximity to a pilot light was a proximate cause of the fire.
Whether the defendants met their burden of proving that the plaintiffs' negligence was a contributing cause of the fire.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“If the fire would have occurred even if the tank had been properly located, its location was not a substantial factor in bringing about the fire and was therefore not a contributing cause thereof.”

“In finding that plaintiffs’ negligence was not a proximate cause of the fire, the trial court impliedly found that it was more likely than not that the fire would have occurred even if the tank had been properly located.”

TRAYNOR, J.

Plaintiffs brought this action to recover damages for the destruction of their personal property in an explosion and fire allegedly caused by defendants’ negligence

[543]

in filling plaintiffs ’ butane storage tank. Defendants alleged that plaintiffs were eontributively negligent in maintaining the tank within dangerous proximity of a stove and hot water heater with a pilot light. The court, sitting without a jury, entered judgment for plaintiffs. Defendants appeal.

About seven years before the fire, plaintiffs had a 50-gallon butane storage tank installed outside a house near Santa Maria that they occupied as tenants. A stove and hot water heater with a pilot light were inside the house a few inches from the tank and separated from it by a wall of 1 inch by 12 inch board and batten construction. A pipe through a hole in the wall connected the tank with the heater and stove. Butane is a liquefied petroleum gas and has a distinct odor. It is liquefied under pressure and is transported in liquid form. It is a gas when the pressure is released and is heavier than air. When it escapes, it seeks a low level and drifts with the wind. It is inflammable, explosive, and highly volatile. Those who control it must use the utmost care to prevent its escaping. (See 17 A.L.R.2d 888-891.) Thus, Safety Order 4935 of the Division of Industrial Safety (Cal. Admin. Code, tit. 8) forbids the maintenance of such a tank within 10 feet of such a building as that occupied by plaintiffs. Safety Order 4978 forbids the filling of such a tank “within ten feet of any important building or house trailer. ’ ’

The tank needed refilling about every five weeks and had been serviced without mishap for about seven years. It was filled by means of a pressure pump through a filler hose, 50 feet long and an inch and a half in diameter, connected to the tank from a butane truck, which had a capacity of 1,100 gallons. When the hose is attached to the tank as well as when it is uncoupled, some butane always escapes. Defendant Munoz, who was employed by defendant Potter, delivered the butane to plaintiffs’ tank in the midafternoon. It is generally windy in the vicinity of Santa Maria in the afternoon and was windy at the time of the delivery. Munoz was the only person present at the time of the explosion and fire. There was no escaping butane or odor of butane when he arrived to fill the tank. In the course of filling it, however, he did smell butane but nevertheless continued with the filling. The tank took 26 gallons of butane and it was filled in about two minutes. After filling the tank, Munoz closed the valves and was unscrewing the hose from the tank when he saw a flash of flame leap from around the hose and coupling and from between the boards of the house

Signorelli v. Potter

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TRAYNOR, J.

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