Hurd v. Boston & Maine Railroad

R. L., c. 300, s. 1 (now RSA 380:1) provides that “the proprietors of every railroad shall be liable for all damages to any person or property by fire or steam from any locomotive or other engine upon their road.” It was decided in Beard v. Railroad, supra, 472, that the liability imposed thereby on the railroad “was intended to apply only to those persons or properties for which the operation of the railroad could foreseeably constitute an extra hazard of injury or destruction by fire.” It was also stated therein that in “determining whether the properties of the various plaintiffs fell…