Denton v. Kernochan — 37 N.Y. St. Rep. 510

Majority

p. 510

Frederick S. Denton, Resp’t, v. J. Frederick Kernochan, App’lt.

(New York Common Pleas, General Term,

Filed April 6, 1891.)

Headnote

Negligence—Liability of tenant of building for overflow of water.

Certain goods on the upper floors of a building were sold to defendant, who eng..ged a man to look after them and agreed to pay the rent, but it did not appear that he or his agent were ever on the premises. A faucet appurtenant thereto was left open, and thereby plaintiff’s apartments were flooded. Held, that as there were other occupants of the building, and it was not shown that they did not have access to the faucet, defendant could not be held responsible for the injury.

Appeal from a judgment of the district court for the third judicial district; trial by the court. Action for damage to plaintiff’s goods by an overflow of water. The wrong imputed to defendant is that he “ negligently, carelessly and heedlessly opened and left open a certain faucet appurtenant to his premises, whereby the water flowed through the same into the apartments of the plaintiff,” and occasioned the injury complained of. One Donnell, tenant of the fourth and fifth stories of the building, sold defendant a lot of merchandise there deposited, and defendant agreed to pay the rent until he could dispose of the merchandise. He engaged a man to look after the merchandise, but it does not appear that either defendant or his agent was ever actually on the premises. Several other persons were occupants of the building, and, for anything shown to the contrary, any one of them might have opened the faucet

Leonard Baker, for resp’t; Mitchell & Erlanger, for app’lt.

Assuming what, however, is questionable upon the facts, that defendant was technically tenant and occupant of premises, we are, nevertheless, of the opinion that the evidence is insufficient to fix him with liability for plaintiff’s injury.

By the form of the complaint, and it could not be otherwise, negligence is the gist of the action ; and to recover it is incumbent on the plaintiff to show that the negligence of the defendant was the occasion of his injury. The judgments of courts are founded upon proofs, not upon surmise or conjecture; and to •overcome the legal presumption that every man fulfills his obligations, evidence must be produced of the fact of a breach of duty.

p. 511

True it is that one must so use his own as not to injure another; but still it remains to be shown that it was his act that caused the injury.

In the case before us no evidence whatever was given as to how the faucet came to be open, or by whom it was opened, or how long it had been opened; all that appears being that a policeman found the water running and the sink overflowed. If the defendant were the only occupant of the rooms, or if he alone had access to the faucet, then possibly a presumption might arise that it was by his act the water was set running. But as other ¡persons occupied the building, and as it is not apparent that they did not have access to the faucet, there is no warrant in the evidence to impute to defendant responsibility for the accident.

In Donnelly v. Jenkins, 9 Daly, 41 , the several occupants of a house were sought to be held liable for an injury from a fall through an elevator hatchway; but a verdict for the plaintiff was set aside at general term, the court saying (p. 44) “ if either of these defendants used the elevator exclusively, then if the door was left open, one might legitimately infer that it was left open by such defendant; but in the absence of all proof upon the subject, how can we say that this or that defendant was guilty of the negligence ? There was, therefore, no evidence showing the defendants guilty of the negligence, and the judgment must be reversed.” Sufficiently in point is Moore v. Goedel, 34 N. Y., 527 , an action for damages from an overflow of premises occasioned by leaving the faucet open, where it is said : “ The premises being occupied in common, no presumption arises that the overflow was occasioned by the neglect of the defendants.” See Robbins v. Mount, 4 Robt., 553 ; Clarke v. Anderson, 2 City Ct., 115; Ross v. Fedden, L. R., 7 Q. B., 661; Harris v. Perry, 23 Hun, 244 ; 89 N. Y., 308 .

Judgment reversed and new trial ordered, costs to abide the event.

Bischoff, J., concurs.