Authur A. Arnhold v. United States of America, Rayonier Incorporated, a Corporation v. United States

This litigation arose out of a forest fire in August and September, 1951, on the Olympic Peninsula in the State of Washington.

A complaint was filed under the Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1346 , 2671 et seq. by Rayonier Incorporated, one of the property owners who suffered loss, against the United States of America as sole defendant, charging negligence by employees of the United States in their failure to prevent, control, and extinguish the forest fire. This case is now our No. 16368.

A separate and distinct complaint was filed by Arnhold, and others, whose property was destroyed in the same fire, against the United States of America under the Tort Claims Act and also, by reason ¡of diversity of citizenship, against the Port Angeles and Western Railroad Company, and Fibreboard Products, Inc., one of the owners of land through which the fire spread. Certain insurance companies were added as “additional plaintiffs” in this our No. 16367.

These eases were here on an earlier appeal. At first the district court entered judgment dismissing the complaints as being insufficient in their allegations, and we affirmed, in Rayonier Inc. v. United States, 9 Cir., 1955, 225 F.2d 642 ,…