Hobson

In this ease the respondent brought his action against the appellant to recover dam-' ages for the loss of an automobile stored in the latter’s garage. The allegations of the complaint are in substance that the appellant received the automobile for storage in his garage at an agreed monthly rental; that the garage was situated across the street from a large hotel; that the hotel caught on fire and was wholly consumed; that the fire spread and passed across the street and ignited the appellant’s garage and totally consumed and destroyed the automobile. The fire occurred in a small village, and within a few,minutes after it was discovered the entire population of the village, including the appellant, gathered at the scene of the fire and made efforts to suppress it. The appellant had on the same side of the street with his garage and a short distance therefrom a larger and presumably more valuable building, and he devoted his attention constantly to this building to the neglect of the garage and its contents. The precise period of time during which the appellant was at the scene of the fire and before the garage had become so far destroyed as to render a rescue of the automobile…