Louisville & N.R. Co. v. Stanley

• Decision Date: 16 April 1914
• Docket Number: 504
• Citation: 65 So. 39,186 Ala. 95
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court
• Parties: LOUISVILLE & N.R. CO. v. STANLEY.

65 So. 39

186 Ala. 95

LOUISVILLE & N.R. CO. v. STANLEY.

No. 504

Supreme Court of Alabama

April 16, 1914

Appeal from Circuit Court, Chilton County; W.W. Pearson, Judge.

Action by J.J. Stanley against the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company and others for setting fire to and destroying plaintiff's ginning plant. From a judgment for plaintiff defendant named appeals. Affirmed.

The original complaint alleged that the North & South Alabama Railway Company owned a railroad which was leased to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, and that the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company were operating trains of cars and engines over said railroad track. The complaint was afterwards amended, eliminating the North & South Alabama Railroad Company and leaving the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, as the sole defendant. The amendment was objected to by the defendant, but objection was overruled. Count 3 is as follows: "Plaintiff claims of defendant the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, a body corporate, operating a steam railway in Chilton county, Ala $3,000 as damages, for that on, to wit, November 19, 1911 the ginning plant of plaintiff, and a large quantity of cotton stored there, in said state and county, was set on fire and destroyed by sparks from a locomotive from the track of said railway. Plaintiff avers that said ginning plant and cotton were, at the time they were destroyed, the property of the plaintiff, and plaintiff avers that defendant negligently set fire to and destroyed said plant and said cotton, to plaintiff's damage." The demurrers were that the counts fail to allege how or in what manner the negligence of defendant set fire to the gin and cotton of plaintiff because said count fails to allege that the locomotive was the property of plaintiff, or was being operated by defendant; it fails to allege that the sparks which came from the engine on the track of defendant were caused to come from said engine either by the negligent operation of said engine or the imperfect or negligent construction or equipment of said engine.

Mullins, Smith & Gerald, of Clanton, George W. Jones, of Montgomery, and Powell & Hamilton, of Greenville, for appellant.

Middleton & Reynolds, of Clanton, and W.A. Denson, of Birmingham, for appellee.

ANDERSON C.J.

Count 3 of the complaint was not subject to the defendant's demurrer. While it avers that the ginning plant was set fire to by sparks from a locomotive on defendant's track, and does not aver that the locomotive was owned or operated by the defendant, the said count further avers that said plant was negligently set fire to and destroyed by the defendant, and which, of course, charges the defendant with responsibility for the instrumentality causing the fire.

The suit was against this defendant jointly with the North &amp South Railroad, but the said North & South Railroad was eliminated by an amendment to the complaint, which...