Walling v. Houston T. C. R. Co.

195 S.W. 232, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 506
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 21, 1917
DocketNo. 7707.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 195 S.W. 232 (Walling v. Houston T. C. R. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walling v. Houston T. C. R. Co., 195 S.W. 232, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 506 (Tex. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

TALBOT, J.

This suit was instituted by the appellant to recover of the appellee the value of his house, located under lease contract on appellee’s right of way, and the value of certain personal property destroyed by fire, or in the alternative the amount of the insurance he might have had thereon, but for the alleged fault of the appellant. The allegations, in substance, are:

“That appellant, desiring to engage in the business of dealing in grains and cotton seed and products thereof, applied to the appellee’s agent to lease a portion of its right of way at Thornton for building thereon a house for the reception, storage, and, discharge of such articles, and upon the 1st day of September, 1900, entered into a contract with the appellee whereby it let and demised to him for the term of three years, beginning the 1st day of September, 1900, a designated parcel of its right of way at Thornton for the purposes above stated at the rental of $1 per month, payable annually in advance for 12 months. That upon the expiration of this contract it was renewed and extended, orally and in writing, being in all parts, excepting the dates and times, like the first contract made, until the 31st day of August, 1912. That after September 1, 1912, without a written contract, appellant continued to occupy said premises, paying the same rental therefor for one year beginning on September 1, 1912, and continued to conduct his said business in said house erected on said premises by him shortly after September 1, 1900, until said house was burned. That said house was destroyed by fire on or about November 7, 1912, in the following manner: That appellant had received on that day over *233 appellee’s road a car of cotton seed hulls, which was about 10 o’clock of that day placed by ap-pellee for unloading on a spur track about 10 feet from his house. That shortly thereafter he began unloading' the hulls into his house, and after removing a part of the same found they were damaged by heat, fire, and smoke, and he determined to reject them, as he feared they might bum his house, of which condition he apprised appellee’s agent at Thornton, and of his rejection of the hulls, and requested of the agent that said car be removed from the vicinity of his house. That the agent, instead of removing the car, threw out of the car, ami near appellant’s house, about a ton of the said hulls, and let them and the car remain near his house all day, and until the hulls of their own heat ignited and burned. In this connection the appellant pleads the following provisions of the written lease under which he claims he was holding over said premises at the time of their destruction by fire: ‘Said lessee further expressly agrees that said lessor is hereby released from all liability whatever on account of any loss or damage by fire to the property of said lessee, whether occasioned by sparks from locomotives or otherwise, or from any other cause whatsoever growing out of the making of this lease. It is further agreed that in event any property of the said lessee should be destroyed or damaged from any cause growing out of the making of this lease, and the said lessor should be liable therefor and pay for same if said property should be insured by the lessee, then and in that event the said lessor is to be subrogated to any and all insurance that the said lessee may have on said property so destroyed to the extent that said lessor may have paid for the same.’ That from the time he began to do business in said house until a few months before said fire he had and maintained insurance against fire upon said house and contents in solvent insurance companies, and that a few months before said fire appellee knowingly caused the cancellation of valid policies he then held on said house and contents in the amount of $1,800, and prevented him from procuring other insurance thereon by permitting and aiding in the storing and keeping of petroleum oils and delivering same over its railroad in and into a wooden house on its right of way about 6 feet of appellant’s said house, which wooden house had been put under a lease contract with appellee by other parties for the storing of cotton seed only, and appellee could have prevented the storing of oils therein. That by reason of the storing of petroleum oils in the house near appellant’s he was prevented from obtaining insurance, of which fact the appellee had notice. That the permitting of the storing of petroleum oils in said house constituted a breach of the appellee’s contract of lease with appellant. Appellant further alleges that, if the appellee is not liable for all the loss' caused by said fire, it is at least liable for the amount he would have collected on his policies on said house and contents, but for the wrongful conduct of appellee in causing the cancellation of his insurance policies, which amount is alleged at $1,-800; the value of the house and contents being alleged at $3,2S0.05.”

Appellee answered by general and special exceptions, a general denial, and by special pleas, in which it first pleaded the above provision of said lease pleaded by appellant, and alleged in connection therewith that the destruction of said house and contents by fire, if in fact the same was occasioned by any act on the part of the appellee, which is not admitted, but denied, same was covered by said lease contract, and that appellee is not liable therefor; that at the time of said fire said contract was in full force, and that appellant was in possession and holding said leased premises under said contract, holding said premises over under said lease after the expiration of the three years stipulated therein; that the car of hulls was consigned to appellant at Thornton, having been shipped over appellee’s line of railway, and said car .was delivered to appellant on a side track at his warehouse; that he paid the freight thereon and accepted the carload of hulls, and defendant had no further control, interest, or property rights in the same; that the hulls became ignited in some manner to the appellee unknown, while in said car, and thereafter, while appellant’s servants were unloading the same into his house, and during the night of November 7th, they became ignited and destroyed the house and its contents, as well as appellee’s car; that the loss of the house and contents was the result of the negligence of the appellant and his servants in. placing in said house hulls that had -become heated in the car to such an extent as to thereafter ignite and destroy his house. Appellee further alleged that the appellant knew that the cotton seed hulls in the car were on fire at the time his servants were unloading the same into his said house, and knew that about one ton of the hulls had been thrown out of the car near his house and were burning, and that the danger of his seed house being set on fire from the burning hulls .was as open to the appellant as it was to the appellee; that with the knowledge of such danger appellant failed to guard his house and take necessary precaution against the same being set on fire from the burning hulls, and that the loss of his house and contents was the proximate result of his own negligence.

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Bluebook (online)
195 S.W. 232, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 506, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walling-v-houston-t-c-r-co-texapp-1917.