Case ID: me_123/html/0549-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Interstate Manufacturing Company vs. Maine Central Railroad Company.
    Androscoggin County.
    Decided June 6, 1923.
    In an action brought under R. S., Chap. 57, Sec. 63, the plaintiff recovered a verdict of $11,916.18 for damages alleged to have been caused by sparks or cinders from an engine of the defendant company.
    
      Held:
    
    1. That on the primary question of the cause of the fire the plaintiff was permitted to substantiate his case by circumstantial evidence and such permissible inferences therefrom as might be properly drawn from the facts proved, but not by mere surmise or conjecture.
    2. The nearness of the property to the railroad track, only sixty-six feet, the presence of the defendant’s locomotive with an extra freight train, of about twenty-five cars, and the shifting of one of the cars to a side track just before the fire was discovered, the shifting taking place nearly or quite opposite the plaintiff’s mill, the point where the fire started, in a pile of shavings outside and at the corner of the mill if plaintiff’s witnesses were believed, and the direction of the wind from the track to the mill, were all circumstances for the consideration of the jury. Some of them were sharply contradicted by the defendant. The case is undoubtedly close but we do not think on this point that the verdict is manifestly wrong.
    3. On the question of damages a majority of the court are of the opinion that they are grossly excessive and that the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars will amply compensate the plaintiff for all its loss. The entry will therefore be, Motion sustained unless the plaintiff within thirty days from filing of rescript remits all the verdict in excess of $7'500.
    If remittitur is seasonably filed, motion overruled.
    
      Frank A. Morey, for plaintiff. Charles B. Carter of White, Carter and Skelton, for defendant.