In what circumstances can a defendant be found to have caused a fire by leaving a cigarette on a chair?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from Mohamed v. Banville, 2009 CanLII 7092 (ON SC):
Similarly, in D'Antimo v. McEneny, [1999] O.J. No. 3298 (S.C.J.), a case where the plaintiff alleged the defendant left a cigarette burning on a chair in his apartment which caused extensive fire damage, Fleury J. held that in the absence of any smoking in the time preceding the fire the defendant could not be seen as negligently having caused the fire. In that case, although there was evidence that the defendant had been smoking a cigarette while sitting on the couch where the fire was said to have originated, there was no evidence to suggest that she handled her cigarette carelessly. As a result, the claim of negligence failed.
In Steer v. Hore, [1990] B.C.J. No. 519 (S.C.), the plaintiff landlord alleged the tenants had caused a fire by smoking carelessly on their apartment balcony. Although a wallet and cigarette butts were found on the balcony where the fire had originated, the action was nonetheless dismissed as the plaintiff had adduced no evidence the plaintiffs had smoked on the balcony on the evening the fire occurred or had failed to properly extinguish smoker's materials.
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