Panther Oil & Grease Manufacturing Company, a Corporation v. John Norman Segerstrom, as Administrator of the Estate of H. N. Segerstrom, Deceased

This is an action for damages predicated on negligence. The appeal is from a judgment for the plaintiff based on a jury verdict in the amount of $111,035, growing out of the destruction by fire of an apple packing shed, a warehouse, and equipment belonging to an estate which appellee was administering. In returning the verdict the jury necessarily found that appellant was negligent and that its negligence was the proximate cause of the loss.

The fire occurred when appellee’s unskilled crew undertook to heat a product called Battleship Roof Primer, manufactured by appellant and sold through its agent to appellee. The primer, delivered to appellee three months before the fire, had thickened or jelled while stored, and the purpose of heating it was to render it pliant enough to be applied to the roof. The heating was done by placing the container over an open stove in the center of an empty warehouse some 25 feet from the nearest wall. The warehouse had a concrete floor and a ceiling 18 feet high, and several of its large doors were open. The heating released gases which accumulated in the building and the gases exploded, thus causing the fire.

Battleship Roof Primer is a petroleum…