View report page

178
of English law." Unfortunately, the section was altered in
Committee so as to become of little value for practical
purposes. The "condition," however, is implied by existing
law in the letting of a furnished house, as was shewn by the
result of an action (Charsley v. Jones) brought, in 1889, for
breach of an agreement to let a furnished dwelling house at
Ryde. Owing to the alleged defective system of drainage, and
the contaminated condition of a well, in connection with the
house, several members of the plaintiff's family got typhoid
fever; and so the plaintiff and his family had to quit the house
and find apartments elsewhere. The learned Judge (Mr.
Justice Manisty), in summing up to the (Special) Jury, said
that "the law in the case of a furnished house was, that there
was an implied undertaking that the house was fit for human
habitation. The question was whether the typhoid fever was
due to the house not being in a reasonably habitable condition
owing to the water or the drains ? It seemed that the defendant
honestly believed that the house was in a fit state of habitation ;
but that was not the question. The date when the family went
to Ryde was important, as in typhoid fever there was a period
of incubation." The learned Judge then went carefully
through the evidence, and said, as regarded the damages, if
they thought the house was not fit for human habitation, the
plaintiff was entitled to a verdict for the rent and such other
expenses as he was put to. The Jury returned a verdict for
the plaintiff, with £70 damages.
UNDERGROUND ROOMS.
Section 103 of the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855,
enacts that, "Any room of a house, the surface of the floor of
which room is more than three feet below the surface of the roadway
of the adjoining street . . . when such room
is or has been occupied separately as a dwelling, at or before the
time of the passing of the Act (14th August, 1855), may continue