Myers

This is an appeal from the verdict of a jury in favor of the defendant in an action against the landlord of an apartment house, for the death of a subtenant resulting from asphyxiation caused by a defective automatic gas heater which was used in a bathroom.

The respondent owned the Sunnyside Apartments at Ventura, which were leased November 8, 1923, to Nannie Swanwick. The lease contained the following clause: “The lessee agrees to make all minor repairs at her own expense.” Appellants’ intestate, Arthur P. Nelson, and his family were tenants of the lessee at the time of his death. He was a strong, healthy man forty years of age, and was engaged as an oil driller. A few days prior to his death, the deceased wrenched his back in attempting to adjust an automobile wheel, and did not return to his work. The night before his death he was taken to a physician for treatment, but the record fails to disclose the nature or seriousness of this ailment. The afternoon of July 13, 1924, Mrs. Swanwick assisted him in ascending the stairway to his room, She testified: “He came in and sat down on a couch in the hall, . . . then ... he went upstairs. . . . I walked by the side of him—I went with…