Lord Sumner :-

The principal object of this appeal is to settle the true construction of Art. 1054 of the Civil Code of Lower Canada Special leave to appeal was given on the terms that the five actions brought in the courts below should be consolidated and that the appellants should raise only questions of law.

The appellant company generates and distributes electricity in the City of Quebec and its neighbourhood and along the St. Foye Road in which the respondents' houses are situated. The company had erected poles carrying two overhead cables a primary cable charged with electricity at 2200 volts and a secondary cable from which electricity was supplied to the houses at 108 volts. There were many trees along the road side and in the adjacent enclosures and at the time in question a violent wind had torn a branch coated with frozen rain from a poplar growing some distance within one of the enclosures and had driven it against these cables though many feet away. They broke down in consequence and thus the high tension electricity found its way along the secondary cable into the customers' houses and set them on fire. For the loss thus caused the actions now consolidated were brought