Hanna

The plaintiffs, tenants of a building owned by the defendants, have appealed from a judgment for the defendants in an action to recover for damages to personal property caused by water. The building was located at 1024 Santee Street in the City of Los Angeles. A fire which originated in a refrigerator on the seventh floor caused three heads of the fire sprinkler system to open. The water ran for a substantial period of time and flooded the building before it was shut off early on the morning of January 29, 1954. The system was not equipped with a device which would sound an alarm as soon as water issued from a sprinkler head.

With respect to each tenant, three causes of action were pleaded. The first cause of action contained an allegation that at all times mentioned in the complaint, Section 94.30312 of the Municipal Code of the City of Los Angeles provided as follows:

In the first cause of action it was further alleged that the defendants “negligently, carelessly and in violation of law, managed, maintained and controlled within the ... building a fire sprinkler system containing more than 25 sprinklers, which was not a thermostatically-operated system, which system did not…