Court Opinion

ID: 9442593
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:52:33.385686+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:08.841651
License: Public Domain

*367SANBORN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Had I been the District Judge before whom this case was tried, I am satisfied that my rulings upon the questions presented at the trial would not have differed from those which are challenged by this appeal. After the case was submitted to this Court, I prepared an opinion stating ,my views as to the facts, the questions for review, and the applicable law. This opinion was no more convincing to my associates than their opinion is to me. Rather than attempting a dissection and criticism of the majority opinion, I prefer to submit as my dissent the opinion prepared by me, showing how I believe the case should be decided. The opinion follows:
This appeal challenges the validity of a judgment for the plaintiff, Harry Goldman, in an action brought by him against General Mills, Inc., a tenant, upon the claim that it, had negligently destroyed a building upon premises which it had leased.
The litigation is the outgrowth of a fire which on January 15, 1948, destroyed the building on property known as 3127 Hiawatha Avenue in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, occupied by General Mills, Inc., under a written lease. At the time of the fire the property was owned by Harry Goldman, Charlotte Goldman, Irving H. Green and Faye Bettye Green. They had purchased it from the Char-Gale Manufacturing Company for $110,000. That company had, on November 1, 1946, leased the property to General Mills, Inc., for ten years from January 1, 1947, for manufacturing, warehouse, and office purposes, at a net annual rental of $15,000. The interest of the Char-Gale Manufacturing Company in the lease had been acquired by Harry Goldman and his co-owners.
General Mills, Inc., as lessee, was in sole possession of the property when the fire occurred.
The Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company, of Indianapolis, Indiana, had issued to Harry Goldman and his associates a Minnesota Standard fire insurance policy against loss or damage to the building to the extent of $100,000, and against loss of rents to the amount of $15,000. After the fire, the insurance company paid to the insured owners $110,643.90 to cover the loss of the building and rentals.
The owners of the property attributed the fire to the negligence of employees of General Mills, Inc., Harry Goldman’s co-owners assigned to him their claims against General Mills, Inc. The insurance company, under the subrogation clause of its policy, received from the owners an assignment of their rights to recover from General Mills, Inc., what the insurance company had paid to them under the policy.
Harry Goldman, who is a citizen of Louisiana, then brought this action against General Mills, Inc., a Delaware corporation, to recover $342,500 damages for the destruction of the building, allegedly caused by the actionable negligence of the defendant (appellant). The damages claimed included: (1) the diminution of the value of the property resulting from the fire, (2) the expense of removing debris, and (3) the loss of rentals under the lease.
The defendant, in its answer, denied liability, and asserted that the destruction of the building rendered the premises untenantable and terminated the lease; that the defendant surrendered the leased property to the owners, who .re-entered the premises; that, by the terms of the lease, the defendant was exonerated fi;om all liability for the destruction of the building; that the loss sustained by the owners did not exceed the insurance on the building, which had been paid to them; that they had assigned their claims against the defendant to the insurance company, and that it was the real party in interest.
The Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company, as assignee and subrogee of' the owners, filed a complaint in intervention, asserting that the fire was due to the negligence of the defendant, and asking for judgment against it for $110,643.90, the amount which the insurer had paid to its insureds. In answer to the complaint in intervention, the defendant set up substantially the same defenses it had asserted in its answer to the plaintiff’s complaint.
*368The case was tried to a jury. The controverted issues of fact were, as is usual in negligence cases, (1) liability, and (2) damages.
The evidence of the plaintiff and the intervener tended to prove that the fire was caused by an employee of the defendant placing a hot aluminum casting of a pot of a pressure-cooker in the sump of a Bullard machine (a large mechanical device used for finishing the inside of such pots) under a flow of cutting oil or coolant flowing from the machine into a sump. The evidence of the defendant was to the effect that the fire was not; and could not have been, caused in that way.
At the close of the evidence, the 'defendant made a motion for a directed verdict “on the ground that the plaintiff and the Intervener' have wholly failed to make out a case of negligence; and for the further reason that the lease provisions exonerate the defendant from any liability in this case, even if negligence were shown.” This motion was denied.
In submitting the issues of fact to the jury, namely, those of negligence, proximate cause, and damages, the court directed the jury to answer special interrogatories and also to return a general verdict. The special interrogatories and the answers thereto are set forth in the margin.1 The general verdict was in favor of the plaintiff for $198,678.
The defendant made a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial. The court denied the motion for judgment, upon the grounds (1) that the evidence amply sustained the jury’s finding that the defendant was negligent and that such negligence was the proximate cause of the destruction of the building in suit, and (2) that the terms of the lease did not relieve the defendant from liability for negligently destroying the building. The court concluded, however, that in submitting the case to the jury a wrong measure of damages had been used; that the proper measure of damages was the difference between the fair and reasonable market value of the property subject to the lease, immediately be*369fore the fire and its fair and reasonable market value immediately after the fire and before the debris was removed. A new trial was granted, limited to the issue of damages only, under authority of Rule 59(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A.
At the time the issue of damages came on for retrial, the parties stipulated that if that issue were to be submitted to a jury, its verdict would be in favor of the plaintiff for $142,500. The stipulation reserved to the parties their rights to review on appeal to the same extent as though evidence had been taken and the issue submitted to a jury. Judgment was then entered in favor of the plaintiff for $142,500. The intervener moved for a separate judgment in its favor against the defendant. The District Court denied this motion on the ground that the judgment entered, although in the plaintiff’s name, was, in effect, one in trust for the intervener to the extent of its interest, and that there was no necessity for entering two judgments against the defendant.
While the defendant in its “Statement of Points to be Argued,” does not state specifically the errors of the District Court relied upon for reversal, it is a simple matter to determine the rulings which the defendant contends were erroneous.
The defendant asserts that the court erred in refusing to direct a verdict for the defendant on the grounds: (1) that the exception “loss by fire” appearing in the covenant of the lease providing for the surrender of the leased premises in good condition, included a fire negligently caused by the defendant or its employees and exonerated the defendant from liability; and (2) that the evidence was insufficient to make the issue of actionable negligence one of fact for the jury. The defendant also contends that the court erred in refusing to limit the plaintiff’s recovery to the difference between what the owners of the property received by way of insurance and the total award of damages; that the court’s instructions to the jury were confusing; and that the court abused its discretion in failing to grant a new trial as to all issues.
The applicable substantive law is that of Minnesota. The first question for consideration is whether the covenant of the lease which contained the provision that “the Tenant agrees to return said premises peaceably and promptly to the Lessor at the end of the term of this lease, or at any previous termination thereof, in as good condition as the same are now in or may hereafter be put in, loss by fire and ordinary wear excepted,” 2 was intended to relieve the defendant from liability for damages in case it or its employees, neg*370ligently destroyed the building by fire. The District Court was of the opinion that the quoted words, when read in connection with the other provisions of the covenant of the lease and considered in relation to the public policy that those who commit negligent acts are to be held responsible for the results of such acts, did not disclose an intention on the part of the lessor to relieve the lessee from liability for a negligent destruction of the building by fire. Concededly, there is no Minnesota case holding that a covenant such as that here involved has the effect which the defendant asserts should ,be given to it.
It seems to me that the covenant to surrender the premises in gpod condition, “loss by fire and ordinary wear excepted,” reasonably may not be construed to relate to the lessee’s tort liability, but nnly to its contractual liability to make repairs., or rebuild in case of the destruction of the building by fire. Apparently the reason for inserting exceptions, such as those here involved, in surrender clauses of leases was to relieve a tenant, who had agreed to keep the premises in repair, from any contractual liability to repair or rebuild structures injured or destroyed by fire or from having to answer in damages measured by the reproduction cost of such structures.
The' obligation of a tenant whose lease unqualifiedly requires him both to repair and to surrender the leased premises in good condition is outlined in United States v. Bostwick, 94 U.S. 53, 65-69, 24 L.Ed. 65. See, also, Warner v. Hitchins, 5 Barb., N.Y., 666, 668.
Justice Mitchell, speaking for the Supreme Court of Minnesota in Harris v. Corless, Chapman & Drake, 1889, 40 Minn. 106, 108, 41 N.W. 940, 941, 2 L.R.A. 349, which involyed a lease with a surrender clause which excepted destruction or injury by fire or the elements, said: “ * * * We think that the language of the lease refers only to some sudden, .unusual, or unexpected action of the elements occurring during the term, such as floods, tprnadoes, or the like; extraordinary disasters, not anticipated by either party, the efficient cause of which originated after the term began, and which either destroyed the building, or left it in a materially and essentially worse condition than it was in when leased. We think this is substantially the sense in which such expressions in leases have always been used, and in which they would now be ordinarily understood by business men in executing 1 such contracts. Fire is one of the elements in the same sense as water and wind are such; but inasmuch as fires, not from lightning, ■are usually caused by the intervention of human agency, there might be a question whether such damages were caused ‘by the elements,’ and hence the • word ‘fire’ was added to the phrase which has formed a part of the ‘surrender’ and similar clauses in leases almost from time immemorial. The effect of the intervention of human agency in producing the damage was the point upon which two courts differed in the cases of Polack v. Pioche, 35 Cal. 416 [95 AimDec. 115], and Van Wormer v. Crane, 51 Mich. 363, 16 N.W. 686 [47 Am. Rep. 582], — a question upon the discussion of which we have no occasion to enter.”
In Boardman v. Howard, 90 Minn. 273, 275, 96 N.W. 84, 85, 64 L.R.A. 648, 101 Am.St.Rep. 409, the Supreme Court of Minnesota said: “We have no doubt that the provision in the lease for the surrender of the premises :by the tenants in as good condition .as when received applies to the building itself. The exception relating to injury of the building by fire, while it would excuse the tenants from repairing or rebuilding, would not justify them in imposing burdens upon the landlord arising strictly from the tenants’ occupancy and use of the premises; hence the injury by fire to the goods of defendants was a misfortune they had to assume themselves.”
The case of Wright v. Tileston, 60 Minn. 34, 37-38, 61 N.W. 823, 824, I think clearly indicates that a tenant’s tort liability for negligence and carelessness causing damage to leased premises is something quite apart from the tenant’s contractual liability to pay rent or make repairs, and *371that the exceptions contained in the conventional surrender clause of a lease do not exonerate the tenant from his tort liability, even though the damage is caused by one of the elements referred to.
In 32 Am.Jur., Landlord and Tenant, § 783, page 669, it is said: “ * * * A tenant is, however, liable for injury to his landlord from the destruction by fire of a building on the demised premises caused proximately by the tenant’s negligence, even though the lease contains a provision that at the end of the term he shall yield possession ‘subject to loss by fire’”; — citing Brophy v. Fairmont Creamery Co., 98 Neb. 307, 152 N.W. 557, L.R.A. 1918A, 367, and Carstens v. Western Pipe & Steel Co., 142 Wash. 259, 252 P. 939. These cases unquestionably support the text.
I think the case of Slocum v. Natural Products Co., 292 Mass. 455, 198 N.E. 747, upon which the defendant relies, is not controlling or even persuasive. That was a suit by the lessors against a lessee for a breach of a covenant in a lease “to make all repairs, both outside and inside usual or necessary to keep the demised premises in good repair and condition in every respect during the term of this lease, damage by fire or unavoidable casualty only excepted.” The court said: “ * * * We think the exception includes fires resulting from negligence of the lessee, and therefor in the popular sense ‘accidental.’ It does not necessarily follow that the lessor would have no action in tort for the damage sustained.” The case, therefore, clearly does not hold that the exception in the covenant of the lease exonerated the lessee from tort liability.
But even if the question of the asserted exoneration of the defendant under the exception “loss by fire” in the surrender clause of the lease were doubtful — which I think it is not — this Court should accept the views of the District Court as to that question of local law. Magill v. Travelers Insurance Co., 8 Cir., 133 F.2d 709, 713; Doering v. Buechler, 8 Cir., 146 F. 2d 784, 788; Russell v. Turner, 8 Cir., 148 F.2d 562, 564; Mast v. Illinois Central R. Co., 8 Cir., 176 F.2d 157, 163;. Northern Liquid Gas Co. v. Hildreth, 8 Cir., 180 F.2d 330, 336.
In determining whether there was any substantial evidence upon which the verdict for the plaintiff could properly be based, this Court must assume as established all of the facts that the evidence supporting the plaintiff’s claim reasonably tended to prove; give to him the benefit of all favorable inferences fairly deducible from such facts; and adhere to the rule that issues which depend upon the credibility of witnesses and the effect or weight of evidence are for the jury. Gunning v. Cooley, 281 U.S. 90, 94, 50 S.Ct. 231, 74 L.Ed. 720; Svenson v. Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York, 8 Cir., 87 F.2d 441, 442, 443; Elzig v. Gudwangen, 8 Cir.,. 91 F.2d 434, 439.
A detailed analysis of the entire evidence in this opinion would not be justified. The parties are familiar with it, and the record has been carefully read', and considered.
Just before the fire occurred, George Ojala, a foreman of the defendant, had' placed a hot aluminum casting of a pot for a pressure-cooker in a sump under the flow of cutting oil or coolant running from' a Bullard machine into the sump. The Bullard machine is a large turret lathe about 8 feet high and 6 feet across, operated by two electric motors, one on top to drive the cutting tools, and another motor to keep the oil circulating through the machine and over the tools and the work in process. The machine involved was being used to finish the interior of the castings of the pots of pressure-cookers. The cutting oil or coolant used in the machine was a mixture of Vacmul B-l (oil) and kerosene. The machine held about 150 gallons of this oil mixture. While the machine was in operation the oil circulated through it into the pots and over the cutting tools, and then flowed from the machine “like a waterfall,” about a quarter of an inch thick and about 20 inches wide, through a screen, into the sump tank. The oil circulating through *372the machine would get warm, but not hot. There was oil on the floor around the machine, and oil had splashed onto the ceiling, which was about 4 inches from the motor on top of the machine.
At the time the fire occurred, the machine operator was Clifford Abbott. He testified, on behalf of the plaintiff, that on the day of the fire, Charles Brantingham, Superintendent of the plant, and George Ojala were in the foundry, trying to pour some good pots in the molding machine by pouring molten aluminum alloy into the mold; that, shortly before the fire, he (Abbott) “saw George [Ojala] coming and- he had a pot in his hand and he had these big, heavy asbestos gloves on, or mitts, on, whatever it was, and he come over there and walked right behind me with this pot and set it down here in the sump, right under this flow of kerosene; and she smoked for a little while, about a second or a second and a half, and after that she took hold”; that cutting fluid was pouring into the pot, and there was about a half inch of. cutting fluid in the bottom of the sump; that after George put the pot in the sump, he walked away; that “At first there was a kind of grayish white smoke [something like steam or like a vapor] that occurred, and then about a second later, or a second and a half it just went poof — not loud or nothing but enough to ignite and take hold”; that it started to burn on top, of the pot and kept going up the aluminum shavings until it got all around; that he (Abbott) saw the fire on top of the pot traveling into the Bullard machine; that the fire “kept eating on the oil outside of the Bullard, and the first thing you know it was hitting the ceiling”; that it was about a, minute and a half from the, time the fire appeared on the top of the hot pot until the entire machine was afire; that when he (Abbott) saw the smoke from, the pot, he stepped back because- he had a feeling that something was-goingto happen; that he had said to George Ojala, “George, what the hell are you doing?” and that George said, “I am not doing nothing,” although Abbott testified later that George saidt that he wanted to cool the pot off. Abbott also testified that he did not know whether there was more kerosene in the cutting oil than usual on the day of the fire, and that he had worked on the Bullard machine for more than three months and had not had any trouble or any fire.
Charles Brantingham, the superintendent of production, who was called for cross-examination by the plaintiff, testified that the placing of hot pots in the sump of the Bullard machine was abnormal; that he had never heard of its being done before; that such castings came out of the mold at a temperature of about 800 degrees; that, under normal operations, the cast;ng was put on a conveyor which took it through a casting cooler where it was cooled by water in the form of a fog, so that it could be handled before “the gates and risers” were sawed off and the pot polished; that the cooling unit was not in operation the day of the fire, but was hooked up and could have been "started by pushing a button; that he and George Ojala were in a hurry to test the recently molded castings; that the casting which allegedly caused the fire was one of several recently taken from the mold; that he (Brantingham) did not see what Ojala did with the casting; that Ojala was carrying it with asbestos gloves; that he afterwards told Brantingham that he (Ojala) had set down the casting in the sump under the flow of cutting oil; that the screen on top of the sump would at all times be covered with a substantial amount of oil and scraps of aluminum.
The testimony of George Ojala as to what happened when he put the hot pot under the. flow of cutting oil did not vary greatly from that of Clifford Abbott. On direct examination, Ojala testified that he held the pot under the largest stream of oil for a second or two until it was about half full, and then set it in the sump right under the stream; that he did this to cool the pot quickly; that after he placed the pot in the sump he. walked away about 15 or 20 feet and was standing there for a few minutes, and all of a sudden the Bullard machine was enveloped in flames. On cross-examination, he admitted that two days after the fire, in a statement given to an Arson Squad investigator, he had said: “I then set the pot *373down to cool off in the sump, under the flow of oil and stepped away from the machine, then there was 'poof’ and the fire enveloped the Bullard.” He testified at the trial that it was at least 30 seconds after he put the hot pot in the sump before the fire started.
A qualified expert, who testified on behalf of the plaintiff, gave it as his opinion that the fire was started by the placing of the hot pot under the stream of oil from the Dullard machine.
While the defendant, by experiment and •the testimony of experts, demonstrated convincingly (but not conclusively, I think) that a hot pot, at almost any temperature, could be placed under the flow (from a similar Bullard machine) of cutting oil or coolant of the same kind and quality as that which was in use on the day of the fire, and that the accused pot could not have been hot enough to have spontaneously started a fire, I agree with the trial court that the plaintiff’s evidence made a prima facie •showing which entitled him to have the •issues of negligence and proximate cause submitted to the jury.
“ * * * Where uncertainty as to the ■existence of negligence arises from a conflict in the testimony or because, the facts being undisputed, fair-minded men will honestly draw different conclusions from them, the question is not one of law but of fact to be settled by the jury.” Gunning v. Cooley, 281 U.S. 90, 94, 50 S.Ct. 231, 233, 74 L.Ed. 720; St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Passmore, 8 Cir., 177 F.2d 550, 551.
I think that one reasonably can believe that the accused pot was too hot for the coolant or that the coolant was too temper.amental for the pot, or that the inflammable vapor caused by putting the pot in the coolant was an unsafe substance to have in close proximity to a machine with two electric motors in operation. Concededly, what Ojala did was unusual, abnormal, and not good machine-shop practice. Whether what he did constituted actionable negligence was for the jury to decide.
There was nothing confusing or inaccurate about the court’s instructions to the jury on the issue of liability. The burden of proving negligence and proximate cause was placed squarely upon the plaintiff. After charging the jüry with respect to those issues, the court said:
“You will understand that you will not arrive at any question of damages until you have first determined the other questions which I have submitted to you.
“However, if you arrive at the question of damages and if you find that plaintiff is entitled to recover under the instructions of the court, then plaintiff is entitled to recover the damages he sustained as a direct result of the negligence of the defendant.”
In instructing the jury upon the question of damages and the right of the plaintiff to recover, as a part thereof, the present value of future rentals provided in the lease, the court referred to a Minnesota statute, Sec. 504.05, Minnesota Statutes Annotated, which relieves a tenant of liability for rent if a leased building is destroyed without fault or neglect on his part; and advised the jury, in substance, that, in order to avoid liability for damages based on the value of future rentals under the lease, the burden was upon the defendant to show that the building was destroyed without fault or neglect on its part. This instruction related solely to the isstie of damages, and the written interrogatories submitted to the jury so indicated.
Unless the jury was incapable of understanding plain language — which we certainly may not assume and which seems to be negatived by the answers to the interrogatories, — the jurors could not have believed that they were justified in finding the defendant guilty of actionable negligence unless the defendant had proved that the contrary was true.
I am satisfied that the court did not err in its instructions on the issue of liability, and was justified in limiting the new trial to the issue of damages alone. See Rule 59(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A.; May Department Stores Co. v. Bell, 8 Cir., 61 F.2d 830, 842-843; Olson v. Hiel, 8 Cir., 177 F.2d 552, 554.
I think the defendant’s contention that it is entitled to have the benefit of the in*374surance collected by the owners of the property, and that the insurer has no- recourse, is without merit. There was nothing in the lease that required the owners to carry insurance for either their, own benefit or that of the defendant. .There was no trust relationship existing between the owners and the defendant, and no privity of contract between defendant and the insurer. The policy which the insurer issued was upon a Minnesota Standard form prescribed by statute, Sec. 65.01., Minnesota Statutes Annotated. Upon payment of' the loss, the insurer, by the terms of the subrogation clause of the policy, see Sec. 65.01, Minn.Stat.Ann., acquired by assignment, to the extent of the amount which it had paid in satisfaction of its policy liability, the rights of its insureds against the defendant. If the defendant was negligent, as. the jury found it was, it became indebted to the owners of the leased premises, on the day the building was destroyed, to the extent of $142,500, regardless of whether the-building was then covered by insurance or not. That the insurer is entitled to recoup, its loss out of what the defendant owes the-plaintiff for having negligently destroyed' the insured building, is, in my opinion, of' no legal concern to the defendant. Evans, v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co., 133 Minn. 293, 158 N.W. 335, 336.
The judgment appealed from should be.affirmed.

. (Special Interrogatories submitted to Jury and Answers thereto)
“Interrogatory No. 1: Was the defendant, through its employee or employees, guilty of hegligence in placing the aluminum casting pot in the sump of the Bullard .machine at 3127 Hiawatha Avenue on January 15, 1948?
“Answer'‘Yes’ or ‘No’: Yes.
“If the answer to Interrogatory No. 1 is ‘Yes’, then answer:
“Interrogatory No. 2: Was such negligence a proximate cause of the fire which destroyed the building at 3127 Hiawatha Avenue on January 15, 1948?
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’: Yes.
“If the answer to Interrogatory No. 2 is ‘Yes,’ then answer:
“Interrogatory .No. 3: What was the fair and reasonable market value of the premises at 3127 Hiawatha Avenue immediately before the fire on January 15, 1948?
“$135,000.00.
“Interrogatory No. 4: What was the fair and reasonable market value of the ■ premises at 3127 Hiawatha Avenue immediately after the fire on January 15, 1948, and after the debris had been re- . moved? ■ . .
“$15,000.00.
“Interrogatory No. 5: What was the fair and reasonable net cost of removing the debris from the premises at 3127 Hiawatha Avenue immediately after the fire on January 15, 1948'?
“$3678.00.
“The following interrogatories pertain to plaintiff’s claim for the present value of the rent due and owing under the lease for the ■ balance of the full term thereof, less the reasonable rental value of the vacant lots for the balance of said lease:
“Interrogatory No. 6: Has the defendant established that the building at 3127 Hiawatha Avenue was destroyed by fire without fault or neglect on its part?.
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’: No.
“If Interrogatory No. 6 is ‘No,’ then you will answer:
“Interrogatory No. 7: What is the present value of the rent due and owing under said lease for the remaining term thereof less the reasonable rental value of the vacant lots for the balance of said term?
“$75,000.00.
“Dated this 30th day of October, 1948.
“Harold J. Downer,
“Foreman of the Jury.”

. The entire covenant reads as follows:
“The said Tenant also convenants and agrees with the Lessor as -follows: That the Tenant, will keep at its own expense said demised premises and the equipment, plumbing, drains, fixtures, appliances and machinery in, upon, serving or appurtenant to said demised premises, in good repair and in good sanitary condition during said term, and that it will replace at its own expense promptly any and all glass broken in or about said premises with glass of the same quality; and that it will not use or permit anything upon said promises that will increase the rate of insurance thereon, or anything that may be dangerous to life or limb, and that it will not in any manner deface or injure said demised premises, or any part thereof, or overload the floors, or do or permit anything to be done upon said premises or in the passage-ways, alleys, areas, area-ways, sidewalks or streets adjacent thereto, that will amount to or create a nuisance; and that it will not use said premises or permit the same or any part thereof to he used for lodging or sleeping purposes, or for any purpose contrary to the laws, ordinances or regulations of the United States of America or the State of Minnesota, or the City of Minneapolis, or of any rules or regulations of the City of Minneapolis, or of any boards or officers of said city; and the Tenant agrees to return said premises peaceably and promptly to the Lessor at the end of the term of this lease, or at any jjrevious termination thereof, in as good condition as the samo are now in or may hereafter be put in, loss by fire and ordinary wear excepted.”