Runyon v. City of Los Angeles
Runyon v. City of Los Angeles
Opinion of the Court
Action by husband and wife to recover damages for injuries to the wife, received from falling through a broken iron grating in the sidewalk in front of a barber-shop on the First Street side of the Nadeau Hotel Building—a building on the southwest comer of First and Spring Streets, in the city of Los Angeles, and owned by the defendants other than the city. The city’s demurrer to the complaint was sustained without leave to amend, leaving the owners as the sole remaining defendants. At the conclusion of the evidence the court directed the jury to return a verdict for defendants. From the judgment and an order denying their motion for a new trial, plaintiffs appeal.
At the time of the accident the hotel was vacant, but all the ground floor storerooms on the First Street side of the hotel building were leased to tenants, including the storeroom known as 212 West First Street, in front of which, in the sidewalk, was the broken grating that was the cause of the injury. This storeroom was then occupied and used as a barber-shop by one Cooley, a tenant of the owners under a written lease wherein it is expressly provided that the tenant, at his own cost, shall make all necessary repairs during the term of the lease.
The broken grating, which was twenty-seven inches long by eleven and one-half inches wide at one end and ten inches at the other, was made of iron bars an inch in thickness, extending from end to end. At the date of the execution of the lease one bar was out of the grating. It was stipulated at the trial that Mrs. Runyon could not have been injured by *386 the grating with only one bar out. So that, though one bar was out at the date of the lease, the grating was not then dangerous, and therefore, at that time, not a nuisance. The second bar—the breaking of which caused the grating to become a menace to public safety and a nuisance—was broken by a third person while delivering paper to a subtenant who had sublet from Cooley a part of the basement under the barber-shop. Under each storeroom on First Street is a separate basement, separated by brick walls from the basement under each of the other storerooms and likewise from the hotel basement. The door to Cooley’s barber-shop is set in from the line of First Street about six feet. On the right or west side of this inset is a bootblack-stand; extending from the line of the sidewalk to the door of the' barber-shop. The iron grating came flush up to the property line. It was over an opening under the sidewalk that led into the basement under the barber-shop and gave light and air thereto. It was the custom of the owners, whenever they leased a storeroom, to deliver possession of the basement thereunder. Cooley testified that he bought the establishment from a Mrs. Sanborn, to whom the premises had been let under the written lease; that after the lease had been made to her, Mrs. Sanborn put him in possession of the storeroom; that afterward he asked the agent of the owners if the basement did not go with the storeroom, and that the agent said “Yes,” and gave him the key. The agent for the hotel property testified that he knew the lease was assigned to Mr. Cooley; that he delivered the storeroom and basement to him; that Cooley asked him if the basement did not go with the lease; that he told Cooley it did, and gave him the key; and that whenever the owners of the building leased a storeroom they always delivered possession of the basement that'is under such storeroom,, without specifying the basement in the lease.
Immediately prior to the accident Mrs. Runyon and her cousin were on the north side of First Street, opposite the shoe-shining stand in front of Cooley’s barber-shop. The cousin, desiring to have her shoes shined, crossed over to the shoe-shining stand, leading the way, while Mrs. Runyon followed, intending to wait for her cousin while the latter had her shoes shined. Without noticing the broken grating, Mrs. Runyon stepped into the opening made by the absence of the *387 two broken iron bars, and her right leg was jammed or crowded down between the remaining bars nearly to the knee.
There are two crucial facts respecting which it cannot be said that the evidence before us is complete. They are: 1. Was the basement under Cooley’s storeroom necessarily used with, or reasonably necessary to the enjoyment of, the storeroom as a barber-shop? and 2. Did the basement, as an independent and separate inclosure, include, as an integral part thereof, and separated from all other parts of the building, the excavation or space under the sidewalk over which the grating was constructed ?
The written lease does not expressly mention the basement under Cooley’s barber-shop. The language of the lease is: “That certain storeroom known and numbered as 212 West First Street, . . . said storeroom hereby leased being the room now occupied by the party of the second part, . . . The said storeroom is to be used by the party of the second part for the purpose of conducting a barber shop therein, for which said purpose it is now occupied by the party of the second part. ’ ’
Appellants claim that the excavation under the sidewalk, over which was the grating that caused the accident, was no part of the basement occupied by Cooley—that it was not so physically connected with that particular basement as to be an integral part thereof and of that basement only. The agent for the property testified: “This basement under Mr. Cooley’s store has no connection with or entrance into the hotel basement. It is separate. . . . The grating out of which the bars were broken was over an opening that led' into Mr. Cooley’s basement.” From this it may be inferred that the basement under Cooley’s store, shut off from every other basement by solid brick walls, included, as an integral part thereof, the space under the sidewalk over which the grating in question had been constructed, and that such excavation under the sidewalk was shut off from every other basement. At any rate, the incomplete evidence before us does not conflict with this view. Since every intendment must be indulged in favor of the regularity of the court’s procedure, it will be presumed that if all the evidence were in the record it would support a state of facts sufficient to uphold the judgment.
The original structure having been legal and in a safe condition when respondents leased the premises to their tenant, and the injuries having been received in consequence of the grating getting out of repair during the tenancy—the tenant and not the landlord being bound to repair—respondents are not liable as owners, or otherwise.
It is contended that where the owner of a building is granted the privilege of excavating a vault under the sidewalk of a public street, and has constructed in the sidewalk an iron grating, coal-hole, or other similar device for the admission of light and air for the benefit of his premises, he assumes, by implication, the duty of keeping the sidewalk in as good condition and as safe for the public use as if the grating, coal-hole, or other like construction had never been made; that such duty is imposed by law for the public safety; and that, while the alienation of the entire premises, either permanently, as by deed, or temporarily, as by lease, will transfer the duty to the grantee or tenant, still the lease of a part only of the premises will not relieve the owner of the duty he owes to the public and cast the same upon the tenant of such leased part
*391
of the entire premises, even though the opening in the sidewalk has no relation to any other portion of the building than that in possession of the tenant. This view seems to have obtained the sanction of the New York court of appeals in the case of
Canandaigua
v.
Foster,
156 N. Y. 354, [66 Am. St. Rep. 575, 41 L. R. A. 554, 50 N. E, 971]. Of this case the Illinois supreme court in
West Chicago Masonic Assn.
v.
Cohn,
192 Ill. 210, [85 Am. St. Rep. 327, 55 L. R. A. 235, 61 N. E. 439], said: “Fowler, the owner and landlord, was not in possession, but the coal-hole had been constructed without the consent of the city, and constituted a nuisance, and Fowler let the premises with the nuisance upon them. His case fell within one of the exceptions to the general rule hereinbefore mentioned as recognized in this jurisdiction. ’ ’ The New York courts always have held the owner to a stricter accountability than is consistent with the weight of authority.
(Fisher
v.
Thirkell,
21 Mich. 1, [4 Am. Rep. 422].) It is conceded by the courts of that state that the owner and landlord who has made the excavation under the sidewalk and constructed the iron grating, or other similar contrivance, may divest himself of all responsibility by demising or leasing the premises as a whole. If an owner who has constructed a contrivance that becomes a source of danger and a nuisance may divest himself of future responsibility under any circumstances whatever, as, for example, by demising the entire building, we fail to perceive why he may not equally divest himself of such responsibility by exacting from his lessee a covenant to keep the leased premises in repair, even though the premises so leased be but a part of the whole building, provided the contrivance in the sidewalk be used exclusively for the benefit of and in connection with that part of the building which is leased. The abutting owner is liable only in the event that he fails to use ordinary care in the original construction of the iron grating, or other similar device in the sidewalk, or in keeping it in such repair that it shall be as safe for the use of the public as any other part of the sidewalk.
*393
Appeal from the order denying the motion for a new trial dismissed.
Judgment affirmed.
Sloane, J., and Thomas, J., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ALICE RUNYON Et Al., Appellants, v. THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES (A Municipal Corporation), Et Al., Respondents
- Cited By
- 27 cases
- Status
- Published