Hohnemann v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

WARD, J. — This is an appeal on behalf of Charlotte M. Hohnemann and William H. Hohnemann, minors, by their guardian Annie Doud, from a judgment rendered in favor of defendant Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a corporation, following the granting of its motion for a directed verdict.

The complaint alleged that the mother of the minors, Charlotte 0. Hohnemann, was the owner of certain premises located at 212 Lee Avenue in San Francisco; that the defendant company was engaged in the sale, manufacture and distribution of gas to the public generally for domestic and other uses; that for such purpose it maintained a distributing system consisting of mains, pipes and necessary fixtures and appurtenances to control and regulate the flow of gas from its source to points of distribution, including the premises herein referred to; that the supply of gas to this building was so carelessly, negligently and recklessly managed and con[599]trolled that it accumulated in and about the premises, as the resulj. of which an explosion of great force and violence occurred, fatally injuring the mother of the minors. The recitals of the complaint are not denied except the allegation of negligence and in this connection defendant alleged “that such supply and distribution of gas was under the direetion, management, control and regulation of defendant only to said building, but that defendant lost all direction, management, control and regulation of such gas when the same entered said building, and that said gas upon the entry thereof into said building was solely under the direction, management, control and regulation of the owner of said building, and was purchased by said owner and delivered to said owner at a point outside said building”.

The premises, located on the northeast corner of Lee and Holloway Avenues in San Francisco, consist of a two-story building containing a series of stores and apartments, which are numbered, beginning with a barber shop directly on the corner, 200 to 214 Lee Avenue. A small alley opening on Holloway Avenue is used as a tradesmen’s entrance and runs along the rear of the premises, paralleling Lee Avenue. Just inside the entrance, on the left wall approximately 7% feet from the ground and directly behind the barber shop, are located the gas meters for the property. From the alley entrance, meters for apartments 204, 212 and 200 are located in a group, a meter for 206 being the fourth and located a little apart from the first three. Meters for 212 and 206 are the only ones to be given particular consideration in this case. These two apartments had been vacant for some time, but the day before the accident new tenants had moved into 206 and about 8 o’clock of that eiening an employee of the defendant company arrived to turn on the gas for their use. There is evidence that he placed a ladder underneath the cluster of the first three meters, a short distance away from 206, and, holding a flashlight, started to work; that some difficulty was experienced in bringing the service into apartment 206, but after communicating with its occupants he returned to work at the meter location and finally the gas flow was accomplished. The next morning, when Mrs. Hohnemann entered apartment 212, which she was renovating, she lit a cigarette and an explosion of gas occurred resulting in her death.