Betts v. Southern Railway

Plaintiffs instituted this action to recover damages for the burning over of their land by a fire alleged to have been caused by sparks emitted by one of defendant’s locomotives. They alleged that their loss was due to defendant’s negligence in that it permitted inflammable and combustible matter to accumulate on its right of way, and that live cinders and sparks emitted from one of its coal burning steam locomotives ignited dry leaves and grass on the defendant’s right of way adjoining plaintiffs’ land, and that the fire thus caused burned over a large area of their land. It appears that…