Burkhardt v. Schott
Burkhardt v. Schott
Opinion of the Court
In May, 1901, appellant and respondent owned adjoining lands, but within the same inclosure. They had agreed to build a partition fence. There was a dead tree fifty or sixty feet high on appellant’s land six or eight feet from the line. To prevent the tree from falling on the partition fence when built, defendant dug it up and it fell over on plaintiff’s land and upon her team, killing a horse and one mule. The suit is to recover the valu^ of these animals.
On the part of the respondent the evidence is that
Joseph Beckel, a witness for respondent, testified that he was on the ground the evening the tree fell and that appellant told him he first saw the boy plowing at an old snag thirty or forty feet southwest of the tree just before it was ready to fall, but that he did not state that he warned the boy that the tree was about to fall.
Frank Amerine, a witness for respondent, testified that he saw the appellant the day of the accident; that appellant told him he was digging the tree and the boy was plowing; that when the tree was about ready to fall he looked up and saw the boy twenty-five or thirty yards off and told the boy “to hurry by, to drive fast and hurry by;” that he thought the boy had time to get by.
The evidence further shows that the appellant for sometime before the tree fell, knew that the boy was in the field plowing and as he made his rounds he came within range of the tree.
There was much countervailing evidence offered by the appellant. But we are not to deal with the weight of the evidence. Our province on this appeal is limited to the determination of whether or not respondent made out a prima facie case.
The evidence shows that the appellant was at the place of danger, in fact was causing the danger, by digging around the tree and severing its roots for the purpose of causing it to fall; that he did not know and could not know in what direction the tree would fall. He knew the boy was plowing and that in making his
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.