Goldwyn Distributing Corp. v. Carroll

• Citation: 276 F. 63
• Decision Date: 07 November 1921
• Docket Number: 3491.
• Parties: GOLDWYN DISTRIBUTING CORPORATION v. CARROLL.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)

276 F. 63

GOLDWYN DISTRIBUTING CORPORATION v. CARROLL.

No. 3491.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia.

November 7, 1921

Submitted October 12, 1921.

Appeal from the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.

J. H Ralston, S.D. Willis, and W. T. Rankin, all of Washington D.C., for appellant.

James S. Easby-Smith and Ralph B. Fleharty, both of Washington D.C., for appellee.

ROBB Associate Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment in the Supreme Court of the District sustaining the demurrer of the defendant, appellee here, to the declaration of plaintiff, appellant here seeking a recovery for money paid by the plaintiff in its construction of a fire escape upon premises owned by the defendant and leased in part by the plaintiff.

The Act of March 19, 1906 (34 Stat. 70), as amended by the Act of March 2, 1907 (34 Stat. 1247), makes it 'the duty of the owner, entitled to the beneficial use, rental, or control of any building three or more stories in height, or over thirty feet in height, constructed or used or intended to be used as a tenement house, apartment house, flat, hotel, hospital seminary, academy, school, college, institute, dormitory, asylum, sanitarium, hall, or place of amusement, or office building or store not exempted as in this act hereinafter provided, to provide and cause to be erected and fixed to every such building,' etc., such suitable fire escapes as the Commissioners of the District may determine. Under section 2 it is made the duty of the owner entitled to the beneficial use, rental, or control of any building 'in which ten or more persons are employed at the same time in any of the stories above the second story, except three-story buildings used exclusively as stores or for office purposes, and having at least two stairways from the ground floor each three or more feet wide and separated from each other by a distance of at least thirty feet, from one of which stairways shall be easy access to the roof,' to erect fire escapes. Any person failing or neglecting to comply with the provisions of the act, 'after notice from the Commissioners of the District of Columbia so to do,' is subject to a prescribed penalty. It is further provided that in case of the failure or refusal 'of the owner, entitled to the beneficial use, rental, or control of any building specified in this act, to comply with the requirements of the notice provided for,' the...