Spratlen v. Ish

In December, 1909, Fred Spratlen and his family were tenants of Martha M. Ish. The house was equipped with gas fixtures, and was lighted by gas. One of the pipes which ran through the cellar was so constructed that there was a sag or bend therein, and as the moisture in the gas became cooled during the cold weather it settled in this sag and froze. The ice thus formed stopped the flow of gas. Some member of the Spratlen family notified the gas company, and the company sent a man to remedy the trouble. He opened a number of gas jets (among others the one in the bedroom in which plaintiff’s…