Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. v. Noblette

The appeal is from a judgment on the verdict of the jury in favor of William B. Noblette, plaintiff, and against The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Baltimore City, defendant, for the alleged negligence of the defendant in the burning of the grist mill of the plaintiff. The negligence charged is a failure to keep the ground wire of a telephone installation in repair. It is asserted that this default was the cause of the mill being struck and set on fire by lightning during a thunderstorm.

The frame mill of two and one-half stories was in the form of a rectangle whose dimensions…