LIABILITY FOR FIRES. 171 



lessness, or in providing dangerous or insufficient machinery 

 or apparatus, or even in hiring notoriously incompetent or 

 habitually careless men. In one instance an employer was 

 comj)elled to pay two hundred dollars to his hired man, who 

 fell into a barrel of hot water, set in the ground and care- 

 lessly left uncovered, but which the man did not know of 

 (111 Mass. 322). And this last rule would probably render 

 the employer liable for any injury to his servants from dan- 

 gerous or vicious animals intrusted to them to take care of ; 

 at least, if the owner knew of their character, and the man 

 did not. But this whole subject is surrounded with subtle 

 distinctions ; and my best advice to you is, that, if you ever 

 have such a case, you do not rely upon this lecture, nor upon 

 any of those books called "Every Man his own Lawyer," 

 but go and get the best legal counsel you can find. 



ABOUT riEES. 



If a careless hunter fires your woods, and, much to his con- 

 sternation, the flames spread to your fields, and run along 

 the fences to your barn, he is responsible for the whole loss, 

 although he did his best to stay its progress. A man who 

 wrongfully sets in operation a dangerous instrument must 

 take all the consequences directly caused thereby (21 Pick. 

 378 ; 43 Cal. 437 ; 2 Harr. 443) ; and this would be so, 

 whether the fire ran along the ground continually, or whether 

 the sparks were blown through the air a considerable dis- 

 tance, and then set fire to some person's proj)erty (107 Mass. 

 494). 



But as any farmer has a legal right to burn the brush, old 

 stumps, &c., on his own land, if he does so at proper times 

 and in a proper manner, he is not responsible, if, by a sudden 

 rise of wind or other cause, without negligence on his part, 

 the fire is accidentally communicated to a neighbor's prem- 

 ises, and causes him serious injury. The gist of his liability 

 in such cases is some carelessness, either in the time of setting 

 the fire, or the manner of doing so, or in watching it after- 

 wards ; and the man who sufi^ers is bound to make it clear 

 that the other was to blame (54 Me. 259; 22 Barb. 619; 44 

 Barb. 424; 18 Me. 32; 11 Met. 460). But even your negli- 

 gence will not always render you liable for the spread of a 

 fire, unless it was originally kindled by you intentionally. 



