Bearry v. Brensing

RENTTO, Judge.

Plaintiff, a rancher in the Murdo-Draper area of central South Dakota, had hired the defendant, a custom combiner from Oklahoma, to harvest his 1968 grain crop. In the course of the operation defendant drove a truck hauling threshed wheat away from the combines. In so doing he drove it into a stubble area that had been combined and parked. Very soon a fire broke out apparently under the truck. It destroyed about 60 acres of standing wheat crop before it was put out.

Claiming that the fire resulted from the negligence of the defendant he brought this action to recover for the…