Hazard Powder Co. v. Volger
| Decision Date | 12 June 1888 |
| Citation | 3 Wyo. 189,18 P. 636 |
| Parties | HAZARD POWDER CO. v. VOLGER |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Error to district court.
Action by Schultz Volger against the Hazard Powder Company to recover damages for injuries caused by the explosion of gunpowder. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed.
Judgment reversed.
On the 8th day of July, 1885, a powder magazine, situate within the corporate limits of the city of Cheyenne, owned by the plaintiff in error, exploded, resulting, as is alleged, in injury to the person of the wife of defendant in error, and to his property. Suing for damages on account of the alleged injuries, the plaintiff below in his petition set forth three separate causes of action. Upon what principle of pleading it was deemed proper or even advisable to attempt a division of one cause of action into three distinct and separate causes is not easily perceived. The complaint is of injury resulting from an explosion of powder. The fact that a part of those injuries consisted in the wounding of the wife, a part in the destruction of furniture, and a part in injury to a house, cannot be regarded as a proper reason for setting forth each specific injury in a separate count or paragraph as an independent cause of action. There may be various elements of damage inflicted upon a person by the performance of one illegal act, but the act affords the cause of action or complaint. It is a legal unit, and is not the subject of subdivision because sundry injuries may result from it.
But without objection, issue was taken on the averments of the petition in manner and form as alleged; the trial resulting in a verdict for the sum of $ 800 as compensatory damage sustained by the plaintiff in the loss of service of his wife, and for her nursing and medical attendance. The substance of the so-styled third cause of action is that "the Hazard Powder Company, at the city of Cheyenne, was unlawfully and illegally conducting and carrying on the business of storing gunpowder and other explosives, in violation of a certain ordinance of the said city of Cheyenne, on the 2d July, 1885; that, before the injury complained of, said powder company erected, in said city of Cheyenne, a certain magazine or store-house, built of stone, mortar, and other building materials, in which it was then illegally, unlawfully, and wrongfully storing gunpowder and other dangerous explosives in great quantities, to-wit, more than fifty pounds of gunpowder, in violation of the provisions of said ordinance; and that plaintiff was legally possessed, at said time, of certain lands contiguous thereto, on which was standing a dwelling-house and other buildings; that by and through the negligence and carelessness and great lack and want of proper care on the part of the defendant, and by the unlawful storing of large quantities of gunpowder, as aforesaid, said gunpowder...
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...665; Biczan v. Weil, 137 Misc. 517, 243 N. Y. S. 740; Priester v. Southern Ry. Co., 151 S. C. 433, 149 S. E. 226. 4 Hazard Powder Co v. Volger, 3 Wyo. 189, 18 P. 636; Dillard v. St. Louis, K. C. & N. R. Co., 58 Mo. 69; Knowlton v. New York & N. E. R. Co., 147 Mass. 606, 18 N. E. 580, 1 L. R......
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...the recital asserts nothing, and hence cannot be met by a denial.” Code Pleading, § 318. Attention may be called to Hazard Powder Co. v. Volger, 3 Wyo. 189, 18 Pac. 636, as a case wherein the Wyoming Supreme Court had to deal with a complaint which was wanting in the direct averment of negl......
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Malott v. Sample
... ... Attention ... may be called to Hazard Powder Co. v ... Volger (1888), 3 Wyo. 189, 18 P. 636, as a case ... wherein the Wyoming supreme ... ...
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... ... insufficient in not alleging positive facts (Hazard Co ... v. Volker, 3 Wyo. 189); the Court should give effect to ... all parts of the instrument ... ...