Clark v. Mountain States Life Insurance Co.

SCHMIDT, J.,

pro

tem.

On the twenty-fifth day of October, 1928, appellant and respondent entered into a temporary agreement in writing whereby appellant agreed to lease from respondent and respondent agreed to let to appellant eight hundred and thirty (830) square feet of the second floor of a building under construction on Yucca Street, near Vine Street, in Hollywood, California, for the purpose of conducting a business known as a beauty parlor. This preliminary agreement provided for a lease to be executed when the building was completed, which lease was thereafter executed on the fifteenth day of July, 1929, under which appellant went into possession. Attached to said agreement was a blue-print, which showed the floor plan with one window on the east side, two windows on the west side and eight windows on the south or front side of the building, all of which windows could be opened. The dimensions of the floor space involved were forty-eight (48) feet from east to west, with a maximum depth from north to south of approximately twenty-one (21) feet, and the portion thereof served by the windows was a single open area divided twenty-one (21) feet from the east and twenty-seven (27) feet from the west by a semi-partition running north and south, which did not extend to the ceiling, same being just high enough so persons could not see over it and forming two compartments, one on the east and one on the west. Of the eight windows to the south, three were in the east compartment and five in the west compartment; three doors at the rear or north side opened into a hallway of the building, and above the doors were transoms which could be opened. Elevator shafts were located in this hallway.

At the time appellant went into possession, the lands on the east and west sides of the building were unimproved. Respondent owned the land on the east, but did not own that on the west. Approximately two months after appellant went into possession respondent constructed on its

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property on the east a two-story addition to the building in which appellant had leased her space, thus cutting off the light and ventilation from that window, which window was thereafter bricked in and plastered. About fourteen months after appellant went into possession a building on the west side was constructed, two stories in height, cutting off the light and ventilation from appellant’s west windows, which were likewise bricked in.