Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company, a Corporation v. Loraine Booker Poarch, as of the Estate of Paul E. Booker, Deceased

This action was commenced in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington to recover damages for alleged negligent injury to property. Federal jurisdiction was founded upon diversity of citizenship. The appellee, plaintiff below, owned a grain elevator and feed and produce building situated on land leased from appellant in Othello, Washington. Approximately fifty feet away, along its railroad right of way, appellant had a large frame ice house used to service its trains. The southern half of the ice house, nearest appellee’s buildings, was no longer being used and was vacant. On June 13, 1957 a fire broke out in the unused portion of the ice house and quickly spread to appellee’s buildings, destroying both the buildings and their contents.

The appellee’s theory during the trial was that appellant was negligent in knowingly allowing the vacant portion of the ice house to become a fire hazard by permitting inflammable materials to accumulate inside and not taking reasonable steps to prevent children and itinerants from gaining access. Although appellee did, by process of elimination of other possible causes, attempt to show that some human agency must…