Davis

Action to recover damages for personal injuries. Plaintiff recovered a verdict, and from the judgment entered thereon and an order denying a new trial the defendant appeals.

Defendant, a corporation, is engaged in the leasing of buildings for business purposes and furnishing steam power in connection therewith. During the year 1891 William Davis, the father of the plaintiff, occupied, under lease from defendant, the basement and first floor of one of its buildings at No. 28 Jessie street, in the city of San Francisco. These premises were used by William Davis as a factory for the manufacture of horse-collars. The basement was an underground room, fifty-two by twenty-five feet. In one corner of this basement, where it fronts on Jessie street, there was a flight of stairs leading from the basement into Jessie street, *570 and extending into the basement about five feet. Midway of the stairs were two large doors, consisting mostly of glass, by means of which the basement was largely lighted. The stairs and doors afforded the only means of entering the basement directly from the street, and without their use the basement was largely useless. There was no machinery in the basement…