Yore

This is an appeal from a judgment for damages for negligence which is alleged to have caused the destruction of pasturage and cordwood by means of a grass fire.

The defendant owned a right of way along which it was engaged with a gang of workmen in reconstructing a line of electric power poles. Fifteen or twenty men under the direct supervision of Mr. Mahan, a subforeman, were employed setting poles in the vicinity of Colgate. The right of way was covered with a stand of dry grass and weeds. A strong wind was blowing. -Some of the workmen were occasionally smoking. A grass fire was started from the stump of a live cigarette or from a burning match carelessly thrown away by a workman. In spite of strenuous efforts to control the fire it spread rapidly to the adjoining fields owned by the plaintiff, destroying the pasturage on some fourteen hundred acres of land, together with a large quantity of cordwood and fence posts. Upon the trial the court adopted findings holding that the appellant negligently permitted dry grass and weeds to accumulate and remain upon the right of way, that it was aware of the habits of its employees to engage in smoking during their employment, and that…