Can a jury infer that the failure of the city to install a rod, and consequent failure to discover or remove an obstruction, could have caused the break?

The jury could properly infer that the failure of the city to [193 Cal.App.2d 143] rod, and the consequent failure to discover or remove an obstruction, could have caused the break. In the analogous clogging of a sewer in Kramer v. City of Los Angeles, 1905, 147 Cal. 668, 82 P. 334, the court tested the adequacy of findings to sustain, in part, the plaintiff's claim 'That the city was negligent in allowing the outlet of the conduit to be partially clogged and stopped up with debris, so as to impede the passage of the water, thereby increasing the pressure upon that portion of the pipe underneath his building.' 147 Cal. at pages 676-677, 82 P. at page 337. In this connection it noted: 'It is conceded by all the witnesses in the case that the clogging of this outlet would throw a pressure upon the pipe on plaintiff's premises which it was not constructed to withstand, and the fact that it broke when the first storm came would be some evidence of itself that the outlet was then clogged and impeded.' 147 Cal. at page 678, 82 P. at page 338. While 'all the witnesses' in the instant case did not concede that a clogging would throw pressure upon the sewer and thereby serve as a proximate cause of the break, we cannot hold as a matter of law that the jury could not have so inferred.

As stated in Bady v. Detwiler, 1954, 127 Cal.App.2d 321, 336, 273 P.2d 941, 951, 'Want of proximate cause does not exist as a matter of law unless the only reasonable hypothesis is that such want exists; reasonable or sensible men could have drawn that conclusion and none other. Where there are differences that may be drawn, one for and one against, the one against will be followed.' We cannot pontificate that the only reasonable hypothesis is that the failure to rod, and the related failure to discover or remove an obstruction, could not have been a proximate cause of the loss. Indeed, a perfectly sound hypothesis could be that such failure, because of subsequent unremedied clogging, did contribute to the break.