Daulton

The question for decision is whether from the proof submitted an inference could reasonably have been drawn that the landlord was culpably negligent in not having warned his tenant against the danger of pressing a porcelain plumbing fixture where it had been used by the tenant for over two years and its defect was patent to the tenant users.

After appellant, her husband and their child had as tenants occupied a furnished apartment of respondent for two and a half years the good lady broke a porcelain handle on a hot water faucet into many a fragment and thereby inflicted a deep cut in her hand. Having suffered some grievous in juries she sued her landlord for resulting damages. After she had submitted her evidence a nonsuit was granted on motion of the respondent.- From the ensuing judgment of dismissal comes this appeal.

A résumé of the evidence shows that respondent built the six-family-flat building in 1928 and operated it to the date of appellant’s injury, to wit, October 24, 1945. At the time of the original construction all of the plumbing fixtures included standardized porcelain handles on the faucets. Through the years a porcelain handle broke now and then. While…