Battistone v. Benedetti

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Musmanno,

On November 10, 1950, at 3:30 in the morning, in Scenery Hill, Washington County, a night club building in the final processes of construction and not yet ready for occupancy was wrecked and completely destroyed by explosion and fire. The plaintiff-owner of the building attributed the cause of the explosion to faulty installation of twin furnaces in the basement by the defendants, Rudy Benedetti and Ernest Reed, Donald M. Vidale, and J. W. Prole, and he accordingly brought suit in trespass against them.

The jury returned a verdict of $51,000 in favor of the…