139 Mich. 608 | Mich. | 1905
Plaintiff leased a house from defendants. While occupying this house he was taken ill with typhoid fever. He alleges that this disease was caused by a noxious gas and discharge emanating from an open sewer in the rented house. He brings this suit to recover damages. His testimony tends to prove that he entered into the occupancy of the house under defendants’ assurances that it was all right. No arrangement was made about repairs. He was a tenant from month to month. In the cellar was an open drain, which defendants intended should later be used to make connections for a closet or bath tub. About two weeks after the tenancy commenced, there came from this drain an odorous gas, which plaintiff says was a sewer gas.’ Later there came from it a nasty liquid discharge. About two weeks after he noticed this gas, plaintiff notified defendants. Defendant August promised to fix it, and came on the premises and made an attempt to do so. This was ineffectual, as plaintiff knew. He, left, giving plaintiff directions to stop the discharge by a stream of running water. This plaintiff tried, but it also proved ineffectual. A week later plaintiff notified defendants that the trouble was getting worse. Defendant August came again, and made another ineffectual attempt to remedy the difficulty, and he left after repeating his directions to use a stream of running water. This plaintiff tried the second time, and a second time it proved ineffectual. About two weeks later — on the day before plaintiff was taken ill — defendants were again notified, and made another ineffectual attempt to remedy the difficulty. On this evidence the trial court directed a verdict in defendants’ favor. The question raised on this appeal relates to the correctness of this direction.'
Defendants’ liability must rest either upon the ground that they rented the premises in a defective condition, or that after notice they wrongfully neglected to remedy the defect. The liability of a landlord to a tenant for injuries resulting from defects existing at the time premises
It is contended, however, that as the sewer was built under instructions given by them, defendants should have known that it would emit this noxious gas and discharge. This contention assumes that the instructions given by defendants contemplated that no precautions whatever should be taken to prevent the escape of gas. This assumption is unwarranted. Indeed, there was no evidence that the sewer was originally constructed without precautions being taken to prevent the escape of gas. The fact that gas did not escape for two weeks warrants the belief that such precautions were taken, and that through defective workmanship they proved entirely inadequate. "We cannot hold defendants responsible upon the ground that a defect existed at the time of the letting without declaring that a landlord is a guarantor to a tenant of the competence and skill of plumbers and other workmen employed in constructing the building. It is clear he is not such a guarantor. See Willcox v. Hines, supra.
Are defendants liable because they did not, after notice, remedy the defect ? They had not agreed to make repairs, and therefore they were under no obligation to make them. See Gregor v. Cady, 82 Me. 135; Gill v. Middleton, 105 Mass. 477. Their agreement to make repairs, testified to by plaintiff, made after the premises were leased, was without consideration, and therefore unenforceable. See Libbey v. Tolford, 48 Me. 316.
Plaintiff relies upon authorities (see Gregor v. Cady,
We conclude that there was no ground upon which defendants could be held liable, and the verdict in their favor was properly directed.
Judgment affirmed.