People v. Foerst

KNIGHT, J.

Pursuant to a resolution passed by the board of supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco, the city attorney instituted this action in the name of the People of the State to abate an alleged public nuisance which the city claimed the defendant maintained on premises belonging to

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her and situate on the corner of Revere and Third Streets in said city. Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff and the defendant appeals. The principal grounds urged for reversal are that the evidence does not support the findings and that the findings are legally insufficient to sustain the judgment. In our opinion there is no merit in either point.

Besides finding generally that all allegations of the complaint were true, the trial court found specifically as to the ultimate facts. Summarizing those allegations and findings, the following were the conditions shown thereby to exist: Upon said premises stood an old wooden structure, built as a dwelling some fifty or more years ago, but which continuously for a number of years next preceding the commencement of this action remained vacant; and on account of being unoccupied, its age and want of upkeep and care, it decayed and became greatly dilapidated, and for several years before being condemned as a nuisance was dangerous and unsafe to passers-by, and a fire and health menace to the entire neighborhood. All of the doors and windows were destroyed, the stairways, joists and floors were rotten and broken, the plumbing was wrecked, insanitary and not connected with the sewer; the chimney was off balance, defective and likely to fall; the basement was filled with an accumulation of rubbish; nuisances were being committed in and about the premises by vagrants and the place was infested with rats and vermin, and contained filth which emitted noxious odors offensive to the senses and injurious to the health of neighboring residents. The above conditions were shown to exist by competent testimony and by photographs taken of the interior and exterior of the wooden structure, which are made part of the record herein, and are amply sufficient to sustain the trial court’s legal conclusion that a public nuisance was being maintained which demanded abatement.

Furthermore, and aside from the matter of the sufficiency of the findings, the evidence shows that for more than ten years prior to the commencement of the action complaints were made frequently to the municipal authorities about the noxious and dangerous condition of the premises; and that the health department held numerous hearings in an effort to persuade or compel the defendant as the owner of the premises to abate said conditions. Apparently, however, little if anything was done to that end, and the conditions continued