Smith v. Twin State Gas & Electric Co.

A leak in the defendant’s gas main under a highway in Dover caused an escape of gas which entered a drainpipe from some catch basins of which the gas rose and passed into the air. There was nearby an underground telephone conduit which contained ducts in some of which were cables and others of which were empty. The conduit led to the basement wall of a building and the ducts were carried through the wall, the empty ones being closed on the inside of the wall with wooden plugs. Some of the escaped gas entered this conduit and became pocketed in the ducts as far as the plugs on the inside of…