Miller v. Neale
Wisconsin Supreme Court
Aepeal ±rom a judgment o± the circuit court lor iViax-quette county: Chestee, A. Eowlee, Circuit Judge. This is an action to recover damages resulting to tbe plaintiff's standing timber by reason of a fire alleged to liave been negligently set on tbe defendants’ land by tbeir servant and which escaped from control and spread onto tbe plaintiff’s land.
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Aepeal ±rom a judgment o± the circuit court lor iViax-quette county: Chestee, A. Eowlee, Circuit Judge. This is an action to recover damages resulting to tbe plaintiff's standing timber by reason of a fire alleged to liave been negligently set on tbe defendants’ land by tbeir servant and which escaped from control and spread onto tbe plaintiff’s land. There was a general verdict for the plaintiff, assessing bis damages at $125, and from judgment tbereon tbe defendants appeal. The plaintiff and the defendant William Neale own adjoining farms separated by a north and south country highway. The…
1Opinion of the CourtWiNslow, C. J.
A man may lawfully bum rubbish or brush upon his own land if he exercises that prudence in the starting of the fire and the management of it after it is started which the rules of ordinary care demand. He is using a dangerous agent, and when there is much inflammable material on the ground, and the wind is strong in the direction *429of bis neighbors’ lands, he may well be charged with negligence if he sets a fire, or if, having set it, he does not exercise that care to keep it under control which ordinary prudence dictates. These principles are fundamental, and they form a sufficient answer to…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Nelson v. ChurchillWisconsin Supreme Court · 1903
3Cited by9 opinions
- Cobb v. TwitchellSupreme Court of Florida · 1926
- Otto v. CornellCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin · 1984
- Susquehanna Transmission Co. v. MurphyCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1917
- Threlfall v. Town of MuscodaCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin · 1994
- Reynolds v. Great Northern Railway Co.Supreme Court of Minnesota · 1912
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