Paiva

Plaintiff sued to recover damages alleged to have been caused by fire “negligently kindled” by defendant on its land and by it “negligently, wilfully and carelessly” permitted to spread to and upon plaintiff’s land and “burn and destroy a large amount of plaintiff’s standing timber, pasturage, fence posts and wire.” At the close of plaintiff’s evidence, on motion of defendant, judgment of nonsuit was entered on the ground that the plaintiff had failed to prove a sufficient ease to support a judgment in his favor. This appeal is from the judgment. Since, on a motion for a nonsuit, all the evidence in favor of the plaintiff must be taken as true and all contradictory evidence disregarded, it will be sufficient to state the evidence most favorable to plaintiff’s case which tends to support the allegations of the complaint.

Running in a direction approximately west-southwest through defendant’s timber land, there is a ravine which crosses the west boundary line about sixty or seventy feet south of the place where the fire in question was discovered. For a week or more prior to the day of the fire the employees of defendant were engaged in clearing its land lying adjacent to the west…