v.
INMAN
Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion.
Under the statute of the State of Washington, every person performing labor upon or assisting in obtaining or securing saw logs has a lieu thereon for such work or labor, and “any person who shall injure, impair, or destroy, or who shall render difficult, uncertain, or impossible of identification,” any saw logs upon which there is a lien, “without the express consent of the person entitled to such lien, shall be liable to the lienholder for the damages to the[*458] amount secured by his lien, which may be recovered by a civil action against such person Hill’s Ann. Stat. & Codes, Wash. § 1694. The plaintiff and various other persons performed work and labor for one Makarainen, in that state, at divers times between the 1st of May and the 29 th of September, 1892, in obtaining and securing some five million ' feet of saw logs. On October 1,1892, they each filed a claim of lien with the auditor of the proper county, as required by law. On the 27th of the same month, plaintiff, to whom the other lienholders had duly assigned and' transferred their claims, commenced an action in the superior court of Lewis County against Makarainen to foreclose these various liens. On March 9.1893, a final judgment was rendered in his favor and against Makarainen for $2,858.75, decreeing a foreclosure of the liens, and that the logs therein described, amounting to about four million feet, should be sold to satisfy the judgment. The logs were in the State of Washington when the action was begun, but while it was still pending the defendant, under an alleged purchase from Makarainen, took possession of and brought into this state about one and one half million feet thereof, which some months later were sawed and converted into lumber at its mill in Portland. After the defendant had taken possession of and removed the logs into this state, Makarainen assigned and transferred his account therefor to Fleckenstein & Mayer, who, on the 26th of April, 1893, commenced an action against the defendant to recover the contract price thereof. Such action resulted in a judgment in their favor for the amount found due and owing thereon, which judgment, it is alleged, has been fully paid and satisfied. On the 26th of January, 1899, this action was brought against the defendant to recover the damages alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff on account of its violation of the statute of Washington in removing the logs from that state ,and rendering them impossible of identi[*459] fication, without the consent of the plaintiff lienholder. The several provisions of the statute of Washington with reference to loggers’ liens and the methods of procedure thereunder are set out in full in the complaint. The verdict and judgmentbeing in favor of plaintiff, the defendant appeals, assigning as error (1) the admission in evidence of the judgment roll in the action brought by the plaintiff against Makarainen in the superior court of Lewis County, Washington, to foreclose the loggers’ liens against the property in controversy; (2) the refusal of the trial court to instruct the jury that the statute of limitations is a bar to the cause of action for all logs taken by the defendant in the State of Washington and removed into this state prior to January 27, 1893; and (3) in refusing to charge that, if the plaintiff permitted defendant, after taking the logs from the boom in Washington, to saw them into lumber, or if the defendant held them after such taking a sufficient length of time to permit the plaintiff to protect his rights by a foreclosure of his lien, he cannot recover.
It follows, however, from the views hereinbefore expressed, that the judgment of the court below must be reversed, and a new trial ordered. Reversed.
Rehearing
On Motion eor Rehearing.
delivered the opinion.
Counsel for plaintiff, in their petition for a rehearing, insist for the first time that the instruction relating to the statute of limitations, for the refusal to give which the judgment was reversed, is erroneous, and was properly refused, because it assumed as established facts which were disputed. They presented no such question at the argument or in their briefs, although an issue thereon was tendered by the appellant in its briei We therefore very naturally assumed, as we were clearly justifiable in doing, that the instruction was proper, and should have been given, unless plaintiff’s contention was sound that the right of action “accrued when the logs were cut up by the appellant in this case, rendering them impossible of identification, alleged in the complaint to be about May 10, 1893, but the proofs show they were cut up in June, 1893.” Ordinarily we should be disposed to let the question rest here. However, in order to avoid the possibility of injury to the plaintiff, we have again examined the record, from which[*464] it clearly appears that there is no ground in fact for the criticism of the instruction. The bill of exceptions recites that “all the testimony showing the various quantities and dates” of the removal of the logs from the State of Washington by the defendant is contained therein. The logs were removed from the boom of the Cowlitz & Columbia River Boom Company. One Banks was an employé of the boom company during the time, and scaled the logs. He testified that he saw them in the raft of the defendant at the time, and “scaled them there.” He made a memorandum at the time of the date and the quantity of logs scaled in each raft, and testified in detail concerning that matter at the trial. He said the logs were taken from the boom, but he did not know when or by whom. Mr. Poulsen, one of the officers of the defendant corporation, testified, however, that “we took them [the logs] away as quick as they were rafted,” and “they were taken away as they were rafted; they were taken away at that time.” Mr. Dodd, who was the president of the boom company, testified that “they [the logs] were delivered as they were rafted, during January, February, and March, 1893.” All this testimony stands uncontradicted, and it appears therefrom that Banks scaled the logs after they were put in the raft of the defendant company, and that it took them away as soon as they were scaled. Under the testimony given, therefore, there was no error in the instructions assuming as an established fact that a certain definite quantity of logs was taken by the defendant from the State of Washington after January 23, 1893.
The petition for rehearing is denied.
Rehearing Denied.