McCool v. Davis

Supreme Court of Minnesota

McCool v. Davis

197 N.W. 93, 158 Minn. 146, 1924 Minn. LEXIS 831

CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota

DecidedFebruary 8, 1924

DocketNo. 23,650

StatusPublished

Cited by9 cases

This text of 197 N.W. 93 (McCool v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

McCool v. Davis, 197 N.W. 93, 158 Minn. 146, 1924 Minn. LEXIS 831 (Mich. 1924).

Pincite

Opinions

Wilson, C. J.

This is a fire case against the defendant railway companies and James C. Davis as agent of the President under the Transportation Act of 1920. This action is based on negligence. Action dismissed as to all defendants except the Great Northern Railway Company and James C. Davis, agent of the President under Transportation Act of 1920. Plaintiffs were given a verdict and from an order denying their alternative motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or for a new trial, defendants have appealed.

Plaintiffs’ property is located in the city of Duluth, 28 miles east and about one mile south, of Mile Post 62 which is at the place where plaintiffs claim the fire started.

For the purposes of this case we assume that through defendants’ negligence a fire was started in some wood products at Mile Post 62 on Thursday, October 10,1918, and though suppressed, it was not subdued, and burst forth with renewed vigor about noon on October 12. There was sufficient evidence on this branch of the case to justify the verdict.

[148]*148The files disclose maps which show .the townships, rivers, town lines, sections, lakes, railroads, highways, villages, cities and other pertinent matters; and the map inserted here will materially aid in the reading of this opinion.

In township 51 we have towns in ranges 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14 and 13 and, beginning with range 18, they are named Culver, Industrial, Grand Lake, Canosia, Eice Lake and Lakewood. Then immediately below this we have township 50 with ranges 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and 14 and, beginning with range 16 they are named Solway, Herman and city of Duluth.

The St. Louis river flows from west to east through sections 30, 29, 28, 27, 26 and 25 in the town of 51-19 and through sections 30, 29, 28, 27, 35 and 36 of the town of Culver, and then through sections 2, 1 and 12 of the town of 50-18 and then southeasterly several miles to the city of Cloquet.

The Cloquet river comes from the northeast and enters the St. Louis river on section 36 of the town of Culver.

The village of Brookston was located principally on sections 34 and 35 of the town of Culver.

The country between Mile Post 62 and plaintiffs’ property was timbered country with settlers here and there developing their land.

The fire at Mile Post 62 started to spread at 1:40 p. m. The general direction of the wind in the afternoon on this date, which was so terrible to the settlers in that locality, was from a little north of west. This fire reached Brookston, 4 miles away, at 4 p. m.

A fire was on the north side of the river at about Mile Post 60, and while the evidence does not directly connect this with the railroad fire, the jury was possibly justified in drawing an inference that it was of railroad origin.

The railroad fire caught Brookston and passed over a territory immediately to the south thereof, and crossed the St. Louis river at 3:30 p. m.

The fire north of Mile Post 60 apparently went easterly and crossed the Cloquet river in section 30 of the town of Industrial at about 2 p. m. and then passed on to where it destroyed one Thorwall’s house in the western part of section 29 at about 3 p. m. and then the evi-

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