Howe v. Frith

43 Colo. 75
Supreme Court of Colorado·Decided January 15, 1908·No. No. 5381; No. 3031 C. A.·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Mr. Justice Maxwell

delivered the opinion of the court:

Appellant Howe, by a written lease granted appellee, Mrs. Hillian Frith, a lease of three rooms on the second floor of a business block in Denver for the purpose of conducting a millinery business, for the term of one year from January 1, 1902, at a monthly rental of fifty-five dollars, to be paid in advance on the first day of each month,(lessor agreeing to furnish heat to the apartments.^ The lease contained the usual covenants, and further provided that, if any part of the rent should remain unpaid when due, or any default should be made by the lessee in any of the covenants by her to be kept, the lessor should have the fright to (declare the term ended, and enter into possession of the premises, with or without process of law, and expel and remove the lessee, using-such force as might be necessary, and this without first making any demand for the rent or giving any notice that the lease was forfeited; and that no action of forcible entry, unlawful detainer, trespass or like action, should be brought by the lessee in case the lessor should forcibly dispossess her of the premises under the terms of the lease. It further provided [77] that if at any time the term should be ended’ at the election of the lessor,jthe lessee would surrender possession peaceably immediately upon such termination, and that, if the lessee should remain in possession after1 notice of any default] or after termination of the lease in any of the ways provided, she should be deemed guilty of forcible detainer under the statute, subject to all the conditions named in the lease, and to eviction and removal, forcibly or otherwise, with or without process of law.

The complaint, after setting forth the lease, alleged in substance that the premises were entered only by means of a hallway on the first floor leading from the street and up a flight of stairs to the second floor, and thence along and through f\ hallway to appellee’s rooms'; that appellee rented the premises for the purpose of carrying on a millinery business, and that the principal part of her sales were made during the months of September, October and November, and the same number of months during the spring; that October 1, 1902, appellant, without appellee’s knowledge, and in violation of the covenants in the lease, tore up the stairway leading to the plaintiff’s rooms, as well as the partition and plaster of the hallway, rebuilt the stairway, and again tore it out and rebuilt it, removing the plaster and replastering, and thereby, for twenty-one days, deprived plaintiff and her customers of ingress to and egress from the leased premises, causing plaster, moisture, etc., to be taken and carried into her rooms, thereby damaging her goods and furniture; that, at that time, the plaintiff was carrying a $5,000 stock of goods, manufactured and in the course of being manufactured, of a delicate nature; that, in tearing down said partition and plaster, lime dust, dirt and moisture were carried into plaintiff’s apartments and upon her goods, damaging them, and by reason of [78] these conditions during twenty-one days, from the first day of October, plaintiff’s customers were unable to get to her place of business; that, in violation of the terms of the lease, appellant, on November 4, 1902, willfully ^ shut off the heat from plaintiff’s apartments, and at great expense she was obliged to, and procured oil stoves for heating purposes; that, while the heat was so shut off, plaintiff took a severe cold and ever since was sick, to her great damage; and that, by reason of the premises, she suffered $3,000 damages.

The answer admitted the execution of the lease, that the stairs and halls referred to in the complaint were the only means of ingress to and egress from the apartments,' denied all other allegations of the complaint, and counter-claimed for three months’ rent and damages to the premises. The reply put in issue the counter-claim.

Trial to a jury resulted in a judgment against appellant.for $1,800, from which is this appeal..

From the above statement of the complaint, it appears that plaintiff sought damages upon three grounds: (1) Damages to her stock and furniture; (2) loss of profits; (3) damages by reason of expense incurred, illness and physical suffering caused by shutting off the heat from the apartments.

It will be noticed that the complaint does not specify the amount of damages suffered from any one of the above causes; and as the verdict and judgment is for a lump sum, and as we have no means of knowing what influenced the jury in arriving at its verdict, jif evidence was admitted over the objection of appellant in support of any one of the grounds upon which appellee relied, which was not a ground upon which appellee ought to have recovered,! the judgment must be reversed.

[79] The evidence shows -that,] between October 1 and 10, ¡appellant made certatojalterations jin the hall and stairway leading to appellee’s apartments which interfered somewhat] with the ingress to and egress ^ from the apartments; the extent, nature and charac-1' ter of such interference being left very much in the dark by reason of conflicting evidence upon this point. It is admitted that appellee did not pay the rent due under her lease for the- months of September and October, and that October 31, appellant, served a written notice on appellee to pay the rent due or surrender possession of the premises within three days; that, November 5 or 6, appellant shut the steam heat off from the apartments, and that appellee continued to occupy the apartments until December 31, the end of the term. Over the objection of appellant, appellee and her husband testified to the expenses incurred in procuring gas and oil stoves and fuel therefor, for the purpose of heating the apartments during the; three months the heat was shut off; that appellee was made very ill with pneumonia, followed by rheumatism, and that she was confined to her bed until she vacated the premises and has been ill ever since; that she suffered great pain and contracted bills for medical attendance.'

The attending physician testified to the illness of appellee, its duration until. February following, going into his treatment of the case in detail.

The court instructed the jury, in substance:

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Howe v. Frith, 43 Colo. 75 (Colo. 1908).

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