Ayres

This action was instituted to recover damages for personal injury by the plaintiff Florence C. Ayres in consequence of a fall, resulting from the sudden disjunction of a rustic railing, forming the outer barrier of the porch of a cottage owned by the defendant Mamie C. Wright, and hired by plaintiffs.

The action was tried by a jury, which, under direction of the court, returned a verdict in favor of the defendant Mrs. Wright. From the judgment entered upon that verdict the plaintiffs have appealed.

The legal question presented is the familiar one as to the liability of a landlord for injury to a tenant, due to a defect unknown to either.

The defendant Mamie C. Wright, a resident of Santa Rosa, was the owner of a summer cottage at Rio Nido, on the Russian River, which had been built by her in 1908. Attached to the cottage was a porch running along the front and one side, where a flight of steps led to the ground. The porch, both in the front and on the side, was guarded by a railing made of redwood saplings, toe-nailed into the redwood uprights. The front porch was covered with a roof, but the side porch, built as a pergola, was exposed to the action of the elements; and through…