Hauch v. Hernandez

• Citation: 41 La.Ann. 992,6 So. 783
• Decision Date: 01 December 1889
• Docket Number: 10,298
• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana
• Parties: MRS. B. HAUCH v. J. HERNANDEZ ET AL

6 So. 783

41 La.Ann. 992

MRS. B. HAUCH v. J. HERNANDEZ ET AL

No. 10,298

Supreme Court of Louisiana

December 1, 1889

APPEAL from the Civil District Court, for the Parish of Orleans Voorhies, J.

Henry L. Lazarus, for Plaintiff and Appellee.

E Howard McCaleb, for Defendant and Appellant.

OPINION

MCENERY, J.

The plaintiff brought this suit against the defendants for $ 7000 damages, the value of a saw mill destroyed by fire, which originated in the porcelain works of defendant and communicated to the property of plaintiff, which was adjoining. The suit is brought under Articles 2315, 2316, 2317 of the Civil Code. The plaintiff alleges gross negligence on the part of the defendants in the construction of the kiln and surrounding the same by wood work, and that the defendants were negligent in not having said kiln and the furnace sufficiently guarded by watchmen skilled in their business. That the fire which destroyed her property was the result of gross and criminal negligence upon the part of defendants and their employees in neglecting to take the proper and legitimate precaution in the construction, maintenance and repair of said kiln and in conducting the same by skilled labor, by which negligence and fault of defendants she has been damaged to the amount of the sum claimed in her petition.

The facts as disclosed by the record are that plaintiffs' saw mill was destroyed by fire which was communicated to the same by a fire which originated in the porcelain works of defendants on the morning of the 25th of November, 1886, at 5 o'clock in the morning.

The City Council had authorized the defendants to construct and operate the porcelain factory. The frame woodwork was about ten feet from the kiln.

The decree of heat necessary to bake the ware manufactured by defendants was 3000 degrees Farenheit. At the maximum heat for baking the porcelain the fires are stopped. It requires from twelve to fifteen hours for the kiln to cool. After the kiln had been cooled, the doors are taken down so as to get at the baked ware. The kiln requires constant attention until it has cooled in order to prevent a destruction of the kiln by the intense heat, and the danger of fire to surrounding objects by radiation.

On the 24th the feeding of the fires ceased at 11 o'clock. At 3:30 a. m. of the 25th the doors were taken down and some bricks placed on the outside to cool. At 4 o'clock the watchmen left the factory. The foreman retired to his bed, where he remained until awakened by the firemen. The fire alarm was sounded a short time before 5 o'clock, and the firemen were on the ground about 5 o'clock.

The kiln was well constructed, being laid inside with English fire brick and on the outside with the best of country brick. It had been reconstructed with the best of materials. The equipments for extinguishing fires were about the premises, although the proof is that a part of this equipment was out of order.

The damage suffered by plaintiff is shown to be five thousand dollars. For this amount there was judgment for the plaintiff,...