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Show PERSONAL LIABILITY FOR FIRE CARLESSNESS Personal liability for damage arising from fire on account of the alleged gross carlessness of another will be given its first test in the courts, of Georgia as a result of the filing of one of the few suits of its kind, in the Bibb County superior court. The petition, instituted by the Macon Cabinet Works against the Southern Box and Basket Company for damages of $17,000, is of particular interest for the reason that insurance companies and officials and citizens of Macon are working in conjunction to reduce the normal burning ratio of Macon. Mass meetings of civic bodies and citizens have been held to correct conditions that will result in increasing insurance rates if not abated, and the city courts are invoking fire hazard laws and assessing assess-ing heavy fines for their violation. jWhen the public once awakens to the fact that property owners, who carelessly or willfully permit fire hazards to exist on their premises, prem-ises, cause thousands of dollars of useless expense to other citizens in the. shape of necessarily higher insurance rates, there will be more general demand for fines and penalties to be charged against such property owners who are responsible for loss by fires. In the present case the defendants were notified; to clean up their property. All notices were ignored and accumulations of trash were permitted to exist with resulting fire losses to adjoining property. prop-erty. This case deserves national attention and should form the basis for legislation relating to personal liability for1 negligence in maintaining main-taining fire hazards. |
