Cities Service Oil Co. v. Dixon

14 Ohio Law. Abs. 203, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1035
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 21, 1932
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 14 Ohio Law. Abs. 203 (Cities Service Oil Co. v. Dixon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cities Service Oil Co. v. Dixon, 14 Ohio Law. Abs. 203, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1035 (Ohio Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

POLLOCK, J.

The first error complained of is in the introduction of evidence. We will refer to these parties plaintiff and defendant as they appeared in the court below. The court, over the objection of the defendant, permitted the plaintiff to prove the manner of operating this pump and the condition of the tank which started the fire, and produce evidence which tended to prove negligence in pumping the gasoline out of the tank, and we might say defendant was removing this gasoline from this tank in a negligent manner. The evidence is that the hose should have been attached to this valve under the tank and that the manhole should have been covered, that in a gasoline tank there is gasoline vapor above the gasoline in the tank which would cause an explosion if it comes in contact with fire. This operation is urged as error. In other words, the claim of the plaintiff is that if a fire is started negligently and a party goes to assist in putting the fire out and is injured, such negligence in starting the fire can be shown to prove the liability of the defendant.

We do not think any such rule prevails. When fire is started those who go to help put out the fire are not concerned how the fire was started. It is not a question whether the fire was negligently started or not. This question was before the court of Virginia [206]*206in the case of Lunt v Post Printing Company, found in 30 L.R.A., New Series, beginning on page 60. What we are reading is in the opinion on page 70:

“The authorities in announcing the rule of non-liability to firemen do not consider the origin of the fire at all. They announce the law, regardless of whether the fire was started by the negligence of the occupant or not. Some fires originate without the intervention of human negligence.”

It did not affect this plaintiff, his rights in any way, whether this fire was started by the negligent act of the defendant or not. It was only a question, so far as the defendant’s liability, what occurred after he went to the fire, so that we think the introduction of this evidence was error, and reversible error.

The next error that we will refer to is in the charge of the court. The court after stating the issues, which was practically reading the pleadings, said:

“The grounds of negligence claimed by the plaintiff against the defendant, and which in order to establish that claim he must prove by the greater weight of the evidence, as to one or more of these he sets out, and which are the following: First, that the defendant was operating when the plaintiff came on the premises at its invitation, as he claims, express or implied, about a tank a defective motor, whereby sparks were thrown, igniting the gasoline. Second, that the defendant failed to keep a manhole door on a tank closed. Third, his claim that the defendant failed to give warning of certain dangers resulting from the operating of the tank in the manner he sets out it was conducted.”

Plaintiff first objects to the court referring to these first two grounds of negligence, first as to the sparking motor. The motor was setting out open. Mr. Dixon saw it, knew it was sparking; in fact, he had been an employe for many years of the Duncan Oil Company. That company owned this property, and probably he was as familiar with this property and surroundings and the dangers and conditions of gasoline under those circumstances as any one at the fire. He saw the motor sparking and he assumed whatever risk that it caused. The fire was then burning and the sparking of the motor did not add new danger.

The next ground is that the defendant failed to keep the manhole door on the tank closed; in other words, that in announcing the rule that a person must keep his property in a safe condition for a person if fire breaks out to come on the property. That is not the true rule. The mere fact that this door was off is all the jury had to find under this charge to return a verdict for plaintiff. It was off. There is no contradiction of that fact and the jury would have a right to find in favor of plaintiff. These two ought not to have been given, and then the court proceeds:

“Now, these are- the only grounds that you are to consider in this case and as bearing on this duty of ordinary care to the plaintiff, provided you find by the greater weight of the evidence that he was on the premises of the defendant by its invitation, express or implied, the law is this: Where there is a common interest, or a mutual advantage between a person who owns and occupies premises and a person who enters upon the premises, there is said to be an invitation, of if a person who enters upon the premises is expressly invited to do so, he is there by invitation. The proprietor of the premises who expressly or impliedly invites him thereon holds out to such other and assumes the obligation that the premises and the appliances thereon are in a reasonably safe condition, and he is bound to use ordinary care and diligence to so keep them and the appliances thereon and to manage and operate them in a safe condition when and after such person invited comes upon the premises, and for a breach of this obligation the owner of the premises is liable in damages to a person who is injured as a direct and proximate result of such breach, and who himself is in the exercise of ordinary care.”

Here was a fire on these premises, fire and gasoline running out of this hose on the ground going towards this tank, and yet the court said to the jury under those circumstances that the owner of these premises must keep them in a safe condition, “and he is bound to use ordinary care and diligence to so keep them, and the appliances thereon, in a safe condition.” Then on the next page he continues and defines or explains an invitee:

“It is the duty of the proprietor if his premises are in any respect dangerous, to give persons expressly or impliedly invited thereon, sufficient warning of the existence and nature of that danger to enable them by the iise of ordinary care to avoid it. [207]*207The proprietor is under a continuing duty of exercising ordinary care as to inspection of the premises and the management of the appliances thereon, to the end of seeing that they are reasonably safe for the protection of those whom he expressly or impliedly invites to come to the premises, and if he neglects his duty in this respect so that the premises become unsafe and gives no sufficient warning thereof to a person on the premises by invitation, who is injured as a proximate result without having been guilty of any negligence directly contributing to the injury on his own part, then such person would be entitled to recover.”

Without any limiting of the warning necessary, the court charges the jury about the warning. It is a conceded fact by the defendant that he knew and saw everything connected with the fire on those- premises, except that he did not know that the cover was off this manhole until it was too late for him to leave before the explosion. There is no limitation as to the duty to warn a person going on the premises if there is a dangerous condition. We have said he saw this condition and knew all about it except that this manhole was not covered. The rule, of course, is well settled that warning is not necessary where the danger is open and can be seen; Thompson on Negligence, §481,0; that warning is not necessary for what the person can see and know and does see.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
14 Ohio Law. Abs. 203, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1035, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cities-service-oil-co-v-dixon-ohioctapp-1932.