Demartini

Appeal by plaintiff from a judgment in favor of defendant, and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The action is against the respondent Anderson, as executor of Manuel Dubois, deceased, to recover rent upon a written lease of a certain house and premises on Third street in Sacremento city. It is alleged that the lease was executed by appellant and the deceased on the first day of April, 1895, and was for a term of five years from and after that date, at the rental' of fifty dollars per month, which the deceased, as lessee, promised to pay; that he paid the rent until his death, which occurred in April, 1897; and that since then respondent has refused to pay any rent and-has repudiated the lease. The defense was that the- house was leased by the deceased from appellant for the purpose of conducting it as a house of prostitution and assignation, and that appellant knew of this purpose at the time of the execution of the lease; and that the lease, having thus been made for immoral purposes, against good morals and public policy, was and is illegal and void. The court found the facts to be as averred in the answer—that at the time of the execution of the lease the house…