85 Pa. Super. 248 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1924
Argued December 2, 1924. The plaintiffs, husband and wife, brought this action of trespass to recover damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained by the wife when a step, in the stairs leading from the house into the backyard of the premises, which plaintiffs occupied as tenants of the defendant, broke and caused her to fall. They recovered a verdict and judgment in the court below and this appeal is by the defendant. The defendant having taken but one appeal, from the two judgments, entered severally in favor of the husband and wife, the mistake was called to the attention of counsel for the defendant, and the appeal was thereupon discontinued as to William H. Thompson. We have, therefore, to deal only with the judgment in favor of Ella May Thompson. The defendant having submitted a point requesting binding instructions in his favor, which was refused, moved the court for judgment non obstante veredicto, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of April 22, 1905, and the overruling of that motion is the foundation for the only assignment of error.
The defendant, in April, 1922, by written agreement, leased to William H. Thompson a dwelling house in the City of Pottsville, for a term of one month at a fixed rental, the lease containing a clause that in case the *250
lessee held over he should become a tenant from month to month, subject to all the provisions of the agreement. Thompson and his wife, the latter the appellee, continued to occupy the premises until August, 1923, or for about sixteen months. Under the terms of the lease, it was expressly covenanted that the lessor should not be required to make any repairs to the premises; that the lessee accepted the premises in the then present condition of repair and the lessee expressly released the lessor from all liability for any injury that might be sustained on account of the condition of the demised premises, during the term or any renewal or continuance thereof. The lessee was in possession of the entire premises and this case is to be distinguished from those in which the landlord rents different parts of a building to several tenants, the landlord retaining control of the stairs, halls and other means of approach to the several rooms. One of the treadboards in the steps leading from the porch into the backyard became loose and after this appellee had repeatedly asked the defendant to repair it he did, in August or September, 1922, have a carpenter place a new board in the stairs; this being the step next to the bottom. The plaintiffs continued to use the step thus placed for more than six months, during which it was entirely exposed uncovered to the action of the weather, until, on April 23, 1923, when it broke under the appellee as she was carrying a basket of washing from the house into the backyard, causing her to fall and, as alleged, injuring her severely. The contention of the plaintiffs is that the board thus placed in the steps was defective and that the defendant was negligent in placing it upon the step. There was in this case no allegation of misrepresentation or fraud which induced the tenant to enter into the covenants expressly relieving the landlord from the obligation to make repairs. A landlord cannot be held liable to a person occupying a house under a lease as a member of the lessee's family, for an injury resulting from the defective condition of *251
the steps leading into the house, in the absence of any covenant for repairs by the landlord: Robinson v. Heverin,
The judgment is reversed, and judgment is here entered in favor of defendant.