Healy v. Tyler

• Decision Date: 07 February 1911
• Citation: 150 Iowa 169,129 N.W. 802
• Parties: HEALY ET AL. v. TYLER ET AL.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

150 Iowa 169

129 N.W. 802

HEALY ET AL.

v.TYLER ET AL.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Feb. 7, 1911.

Appeal from District Court, Woodbury County; Wm. Hutchinson, Judge.

In an action to recover rent for business premises in Sioux City occupied by defendants, under a written lease, the defendants interposed a counterclaim for expenses of freeing the basement of the building on the premises from water, mud, and débris deposited as the result of an exceptional flood caused by a freshet in a stream flowing through the city in the neighborhood of the premises, and an additional amount for repairs made necessary by such flood. Demurrers to the counterclaim and to an amended counterclaim were sustained, and, on defendants' election to stand on their pleadings, judgment was rendered for plaintiffs, from which defendants appeal. Affirmed.H. C. Gardiner, for appellants.

Jepson & Jepson, for appellees.

McCLAIN, J.

The portion of the lease relied upon by the defendants as obligating the plaintiffs to free the basement of the building of water, mud, and débris resulting from a freshet and to make the repairs rendered necessary by such freshet reads as follows: “And the parties of the second part (lessees) covenant with the parties of the first part that they will keep the buildings, glass, gates, fences, etc., in as good repair as the same now are, or may at any time be placed in by the lessor, as the same shall require it, damage by superior force, inevitable necessity, or fire, or from any other cause than from the carelessness of the lessees or persons of their family or in their employ excepted, * * * and that at the expiration of the term of this lease, or forfeiture thereof, they will yield up the premises to the parties of the first part without further notice in as good condition as when the same was entered upon by the parties of the second part, loss by fire, or inevitable accident and ordinary wear excepted.”

1. The interpretation to be given to the language of the lease in regard to repairs (and for the disposition of the case it may be conceded that freeing the basement from water, mud, and débris left there by a freshet would come under the head of repairs) plainly is that the lessees covenant to keep the building in as good a state of repair as that existing at the time of the lease or subsequently created by the acts of the lessors in the event that the building shall require repair, with the exception that no obligation on the part of the lessees shall arise with reference to damage by superior force, inevitable necessity, or fire, or from any other cause than the carelessness of the lessees or persons of their family or persons in their employ; that is to say, the lessors may repair if the condition of the building shall be such as to require repairs to be made, no matter what the occasion for repair might be, and, if the lessors shall so repair, that the building...