Osborne

Certain property of the respondents having been destroyed by fire communicated to their premises from that of the appellant, an action for damages based upon alleged negligence and the violation of a county ordinance by the latter was commenced. Judgment having been rendered in favor of the plaintiffs, the defendant appealed from the same, and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

Following the reception of evidence the trial court rendered findings and a judgment in treble the amount of damages found to have been sustained by the plaintiffs from a conflagration which had destroyed their premises after crossing the party line from an adjoining lot of the defendant. The sufficiency of the complaint to state more than a common-law cause of action and of the evidence to support said judgment are challenged upon appeal. By four separate causes of action the plaintiffs alleged (1) that the defendant intentionally kindled a fire on his own land and so negligently watched and attended the same that it extended upon that of the plaintiffs and wholly consumed their dwelling and its contents; (2) that the defendant intentionally kindled a fire on his own land, that he had…