Lee Johnson v. Thomas & Skinner

CASE SUMMARY: Defendants-appellants Old Town Development Company, a partnership, consisting of Sidney D. Eskenazi, Marvin Mitchell, Louis Buddy Yosha and Max Nelson, (generally referred to as Old Town) appeal from adverse judgments amounting to five hundred five thousand five hundred 00/100 dollars ($505,500) in favor of plaintiff-appellee Robert J. Langford (individually and as administrator of his wifes estate), on Langfords complaints for personal injuries, personal property damage, and worongful death of his wife and two children in an apartment fire, Old Town claiming an erroneous jury instruction by the trial court on two of Langfords three theories of recovery (implied warranty of habitability by lessor and strict liability in tort of lessor for leasing an apartment with a defective heating system), insufficiency of the evidence, an erroneous instruction asto a lease exculpatory clause, and excessiveness of the verdict in Langfords individual action.