Gilbert v. Gulf Oil Corporation‪.‬

This suit was brought to recover damages which were suffered when a five story public storage warehouse and its contents were destroyed by fire on March 8, 1944, at Lynchburg, Virginia. Cornelius Gilbert, the owner of the warehouse, claimed damages for himself and for his customers in the sum of $365,529.77 against the Gulf Oil Corporation on the ground that the fire followed an explosion which was caused by negligence in the delivery of gasoline on the premises by Jennings-Watts Oil Co., Inc., a local distributor of the defendants products. The question of the defendants liability, but not the amount of the damages, was submitted to the jury which found for the defendant. The plaintiff contends on this appeal that the District Judge erred in refusing to direct a verdict in his favor, in admitting as evidence the opinions of certain members of the city fire department as to the cause of the fire, and in ruling upon the propriety of certain arguments offered by the attorneys to the jury.