King v. Richards-Cunningham Co.

28 P.2d 492, 46 Wyo. 355, 1934 Wyo. LEXIS 42
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 9, 1934
Docket1809
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 28 P.2d 492 (King v. Richards-Cunningham Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
King v. Richards-Cunningham Co., 28 P.2d 492, 46 Wyo. 355, 1934 Wyo. LEXIS 42 (Wyo. 1934).

Opinion

*361 Riner, Justice.

Plaintiffs in error W. J. King and H. J. Rafferty, were the plaintiffs, and defendant in error Richards-Cunningham Company, a corporation, was the *362 defendant, in the district court. The parties will be hereinafter referred to as they were aligned in that court.

On the 27th day of February, 1925, the plaintiffs leased to the defendant, for the term April 1, 1925, to and including December 31, 1929, certain premises in the city of Casper, Wyoming, described as the “west ground floor store room, together with the basement beneath the same,” some exceptions being reserved as to the basement space and not here material. The written lease prepared by the plaintiffs, among other provisions, contained the following:

“Lessee covenants with lessors that lessee has received said demised premises in good order and condition and that at the termination of this lease will yield up said premises and buildings to lessors in as good order and condition as when entered upon by lessee, loss by fire, inevitable accident or ordinary wear, excepted, and lessee further agrees to keep said leased portion of said premises and buildings in good repair during this lease at its own expense. * * *
“It is further agreed by and between the parties hereto that neither lessee nor its successors, will assign this lease or underlet said premises, or any part thereof, without the written consent of lessors first had and obtained thereto. * * *
“Consent to any proposed sublease shall not be arbitrarily withheld provided that the business to be conducted by any such sublessee shall not be in competition with or obnoxious to, any other tenant of the building; no sublease or subleases shall reduce or affect the liability of lessee in the matter of the rental reserved to lessors hereunder.”

On even date with the lease, plaintiffs appear to have written the defendant a letter which bears the “O. K.” of Otto H. Bolin, the manager of that corporation, the concluding sentence whereof read:

*363 “It is expressly understood and agreed that in your remodeling of the leased premises, your company is to wall off the south portion of said premises at the expense of your company, such portion to be sublet by you for meat market or other legitimate purposes, provided that under any such sublease you do not violate the provisions of the lease referred to in the matter of other tenants of the building, the within consent being conditional upon your statement that no business' to be conducted in said separated portion of said leased premises shall be obnoxious to any other tenant of our building.”

Early in February, 1926, the defendant made an oral sublease of about the south 25 feet on the first floor of the originally demised premises, together with the basement space underneath which was slightly larger, to one Hufsmith, to be used by him for the purpose of a meat market. The latter promptly took possession of that portion of the premises thus sublet, and installed therein, in connection with his business, an ammonia refrigerating plant. This equipment was put in place by an employee of the Midwest Company and the Standard Oil Company, who had served in their oil refining works as refrigerating foreman for some 13 years and who was familiar with the equipment aforesaid. There was testimony on the trial that, prior to the time Hufsmith moved in, Bolin told King, one of the plaintiffs, about this sublease, and that King stated he was glad a tenant had finally been found; that prior, also, to Hufsmith’s taking possession under the lease, both of the plaintiffs and Hufsmith together went into that part of the basement included in the sublease and discussed reinforcing the floor to support the cooling unit of the refrigeration plant, and that, thereafter, the floor was reinforced by the plaintiff Rafferty and his son, who did the work themselves.

The refrigerating plant, aforesaid, consisted of *364 ,the cooling unit located on the floor above, and a generator tank and a receiver tank both located in the basement. The generator tank was operated by applying heat from natural gas burners to the exterior surface. The employee above mentioned testified that he inspected everything as he installed the plant, started its operation himself, and that he considered the equipment in good condition at that time. He also stated that, between February and September 26, 1926, he inspected the plant some ten or a dozen times. After its installation in these premises, Hufsmith himself operated the refrigerating plant, he having done so for three years previously while it was being used in another location. The defendant had nothing whatever to do with the actual management and operation of the refrigeration system.

On September 26, 1926, while the plant was being operated as usual and a short time after Huf-smith had left the premises to obtain his Sunday midday meal, an explosion occurred in the basement where the mentioned tanks were located, which ruined one of them and seriously wrecked the southern portion of the building. There seems to be no proof in the record as to what caused the explosion, Hufsmith testifying that when he left the plant to go home, it was operating at its normal pressure of 150 pounds. The safety valve, used to protect against abnormal pressure and set to release at 400 lbs. pressure, was found after the accident and tested, and the employee, aforesaid, testified that it was in good operating condition.

The plaintiffs repaired the premises, made demand on the defendant that it pay its proportionate amount of the cost of these repairs, relating to the demised property, and, upon its refusal to do so, brought this action, relying upon the covenants of *365 the lease dealing with the repair and redelivery of the premises, and which have been quoted above. The defendant based its defense upon the exception contained therein, claiming the explosion to be an “inevitable accident,” within the proper construction of that language in the lease.

The case was tried to the court without a jury, with the result that the court made a general finding in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiffs, and entered judgment dismissing plaintiffs’ action and that defendant recover of the plaintiff its costs.

It is urged, on plaintiffs’ behalf, that the covenant relating to repair is absolute and cannot be regarded as affected by any of the exceptions contained in the redelivery clause, although both are contained in the same sentence in the lease. This position invokes the strict and severe rule, which seems generally to prevail, that a covenant on the part of the lessee to keep the demised premises in good repair without more, imposes on him the duty to rebuild when they are destroyed during the term, although he may be without fault, and regardless of the cause of the destruction. 86 C. J. 145 and cases cited. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts, construing the words of a covenant in a lease involved in the case of Cawley v. Jean, 218 Mass. 263, 105 N. E. 1007, which read:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brazelton v. Jackson Drug Co., Inc.
796 P.2d 808 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1990)
Studebaker v. Cohen
1987 OK 100 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1987)
Cox v. Vernieuw
604 P.2d 1353 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1980)
Sky Aviation Corporation v. Colt
475 P.2d 301 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1970)
Fisher v. Temco Aircraft Corporation
324 S.W.2d 571 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1959)
Miller v. Belknap
266 P.2d 662 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1954)
Puget Investment Co. v. Wenck
221 P.2d 459 (Washington Supreme Court, 1950)
Brooklyn Waterfront Terminal Corp. v. United States
90 F. Supp. 943 (Court of Claims, 1950)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
28 P.2d 492, 46 Wyo. 355, 1934 Wyo. LEXIS 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/king-v-richards-cunningham-co-wyo-1934.