United States v. Feather River Lumber Co.

This is an action by the United States to recover damages from the Feather River Lumber Company on account of the destruction of timber in the Plumas National Forest, by a fire which started August 6, 1924. Defendant is charged with negligently setting this fire and negligently allowing it to spread.

Defendant operates a logging railroad on which it uses oil-burning logging or Shay engines, which at the time of the fire were not equipped with spark arresters. Near the point where the fire started there is a Y in the track. The crotch of this Y is near a saddle on the ridge, along which the track runs in a general north and south direction. From this ridge the slope drops down to a canyon on the east and to a draw on the west, which leads down from the crotch or pocket of the Y to a privately owned meadow. The fire was first seen hacking down this draw toward the meadow. Later, the wind having increased, it swept eastward, crossing the tracks, and reached the • National Forest. The plaintiff asserts that this fire was set by one of defendant’s oil-burning Shay engines, which had switched at the Y shortly before the fire was started.

It appears from the evidence that the season of…