West v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.

I. The court gave an instruction in these words: “You will determine from the evidence whether the defendant permitted such an accumulation of dry grass and weeds and other combustible matter within its right of way, exposed to ignition by their engines, as would be permitted or done by an ordinarily prudent man upon his own premises, if .exposed to the same hazard from fire as an accumulation of dry grass and weeds upon the right of way of the defendant. If you find that the defendant in this respect acted as an ordinarily careful and prudent man would have done under the same circumstances,…