People v. Williams

SCHOTTKY, J.

Appellant brought an action to recover the costs of suppressing fires alleged to have been negligently and unlawfully set by respondents. A demurrer was sustained without leave to amend and appellant appeals.

The facts are those as alleged in the complaint. Appellant concedes that there are no additional or different facts which could be alleged upon which it could be shown that sustain

[153]

ing the demurrer without leave to amend was an abuse of discretion.

During 1957 defendant Carl White operated a portable sawmill on land situated in Humboldt County and owned by defendants Gertrude Graham and Blanche Williams. Mr. White operated this mill to convert timber which he was cutting on the land into lumber and other commercial wood products. As he was allowed to do under subdivision (3) of section 4165 of the Public Resources Code, Mr. White accumulated the flammable waste materials from this mill operation in a pile rather than burning it concurrently with the milling. He failed, however, to properly clear grass, slash, snags and other flammable cover around the pile as required under subdivision (3) of section 4165, and the land was never cleared by the landowners. Mr. White failed to dispose of this pile of flammable mill waste by April 15, 1958, the year following the accumulation of waste, which is also required by subdivision (3) of section 4165.

During the winter of 1958 defendant Tony Juanarena, the employee of Miss Graham and Mrs. Williams, set fire to the waste pile. Still no clearance of the land was made and maintained around the burning pile. The waste pile continued to burn past April 15, 1959, the date when fire permits from the Division of Forestry are required for subsequent burning of this type under section 4153 of the Public Resources Code. During the period of the burning of this waste pile it was not continuously attended by any able-bodied adult, and its size was not regulated to prevent the fire escaping to the uncleared ground litter and growth around it.

On four separate occasions during July and August 1959 the waste-pile fire of the mill escaped to the surrounding vegetation and debris and became uncontrolled, and on each occasion the state, acting through its State Forester and Division of Forestry, had to come in and fight and suppress the fire and incurred in so doing a total expense of $6,365.55. The fires were extinguished before they spread from land or property owned by the defendants.