Clover Valley Lumber Co. v. Sierra Valley Creamery, Inc.

(after stating the facts as above). Error is assigned to the denial of the lumber company’s motion for an instructed verdict in its favor on the ground of lack of evidence to justify the conclusion that the fire was caused by sparks issuing from its box factory, or that it had done or omitted to do any act which an ordinarily prudent man, engaged in the box factory business, would not have done or omitted to do under like circumstances. Looking at the testimony, not with a view to weigh it, but to discover whether there was sufficient to go to the jury, we find the following :

It was shown that in the box factory were a steam boiler and furnace, to whieh was attached a smokestack extending approximately 60 feet above the roof of the mill and approximately 90 feet in height, with a wire screen at the top, that the smokestack was bent, and the wire screen, whieh was 9 feet in height, was also leaning, and had been perforated with holes caused by gunshots and rifle-shots) to provide more draft; that the fuel used in the furnace was sawdust and shavings, and, at times, large pieces of slab wood. There was evidence that live cinders and sparks were at times thrown from the smokestack,…