Jennings v. Weibel

SEAWELL, J.

Plaintiffs had judgment in the court below against defendant P. IT. Weibel for the sum of $1,900, which sum the court found to be the value of certain poultry and poultry-raising equipment destroyed by a fire found by the court to have been negligently permitted to

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escape by said defendant Weibel from premises owned and occupied by him and his wife, Mary Weibel, to the adjoining property of plaintiffs. The sole inquiry upon this appeal is confined to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the finding to the effect that appellant negligently suffered a fire burning on his premises to spread into inflammable weeds and grass on his lands and on to lands of plaintiffs. The court, it would appear, was of the opinion that no satisfactory evidence was introduced in support of the allegation of the complaint that defendant negligently set fire to the rubbish pile and it made no finding as to the latter allegation.

Appellant, Weibel, and respondents owned adjoining tracts of land situate near the town of Roseville in the county of Sacramento. The conflagration occurred on August 6, 1925, at a time when grasses and grain-fields are dry and highly inflammable. The fire originated in a rubbish pile on appellant’s ranch at a distance of 175 to 200 feet from his poultry house.

Said rubbish pile consisted of three months’ accumulation of dry waste and other refuse, such as papers, rags, strings and boxes raked into a heap. Appellant testified that he was working on the premises throughout the day; that he first discovered the fire in the rubbish pile between 2:30 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon; that the entire pile was then on fire; he called to his son and together they attached a hose to a near-by hydrant and wet the ground around the pile to prevent the fire from spreading. A water drain ran past the pile a few feet to the south. Due to seepage from said drain a strip of ground about two and one-half feet in width was covered with a high, dense growth of green grass, and, according to appellant, the dry grass between the rubbish pile and the green grass had entirely burned over when he discovered the fire. Immediately south of the drain was plowed ground and a green alfalfa field. After having wet the ground around the pile, appellant did not deem further assistance from his son necessary, and he remained alone to guard the blaze.