Goldson Co. v. Thomas Haverty Co.

THE COURT.

The three above-entitled actions were originally filed in the municipal court of Los Angeles and were consolidated for trial. Judgment was rendered in each case for the plaintiff against the defendant Thomas Haverty Company, and in each case judgment was entered that plaintiff take nothing as against the defendant Joseph Zukin, Inc. Thereupon, defendant Thomas Haverty Company filed in said court a motion for a new trial, which motion was denied, and the Haverty Company appealed to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. On the seventh day of August, 1928, an order was made and entered in said superior court in each case reversing the judgment of the municipal court against the defendant Thomas Haverty Company and ordering a new trial. It is from the latter judgments that this appeal is taken.

The judgments of the municipal court were reversed by the superior court upon several stated grounds. We shall assume, as counsel in their briefs have assumed, that the only matters necessary for consideration on this appeal relate (a) to the sufficiency, or insufficiency, of the evidence to sustain the findings of the municipal court, and (b) to the alleged error of the trial court in admitting certain evidence.

The occurrence which gave rise to these three actions was as follows: Joseph Zukin, Inc., a corporation, conducted a dress manufacturing establishment on the eighth floor of the M. J. Connell building in the city of Los Angeles, and

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in the operation of such business it became necessary to press the dresses so manufactured. For that purpose, a large boiler was maintained by said company for the production of steam. During working hours, the steam, after forming in the boiler, was transmitted through a main pipeline to a steam line, which was suspended over a long pressing table, from which latter line extensions or “drops” were hung downward to the table and connected by means of rubber hose with pressing irons. Valves were attached to these extensions or “drops” by which the operators of the irons were enabled to turn the steam on and off as it was or was not required, in connection with the pressing operation. On or about the fifteenth day of October, 1926, it became necessary to lengthen the extensions or “drops” in order to make the valves more accessible to the operators. The Thomas Haverty Company was engaged in the plumbing and steam-fitting business, and was called upon to make the necessary adjustments. The employee of that company performed the work desired at the end of the regular business day on the 15th of October, 1926. When employees of Joseph Zukin, Inc., entered the factory on the morning of October 16th, the floor thereof was covered with water, which was issuing from open valves attached to the extensions which had been installed by the Thomas Haverty Company the night before, and it was found that during the night large quantities of water had escaped from these valves and had seeped down to the premises occupied by the plaintiffs and appellants located on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors of the same building.