Rosenberg v. San Francisco Storage Co.

CASHIN, J.

An appeal from a judgment in an action for conversion.

The complaint alleged that appellant corporation, which conducts a storage warehouse, received from respondents for storage certain personal property owned by them which it failed to redeliver on demand. Judgment was entered for the plaintiffs in the sum of $440, the value of the property according to the findings of the trial court, with interest thereon at the legal rate from November 3, 1923, to the date of the judgment, and costs.

Appellant urges as grounds for reversal of the judgment that the findings are unsupported by the evidence, and that its liability, if any, was limited by contract.

Appellant admitted the receipt of several parcels of personal property from respondents, but denied the receipt of four parcels which the latter claimed were deposited and not redelivered. The first deposit of thirteen parcels was made on November 5, 1921, by respondent Lois Rosenberg, then unmarried, the receipt therefor being issued in the name of Miss Alexander. Subsequently, on May 15, 1922, three parcels were deposited and a fourth on August 11, 1922, the number regarding which there is no dispute aggregating seventeen parcels. Respondents intermarried in June, 1922, and, according to the testimony of the husband, the four parcels in dispute were owned by the spouses and were deposited subsequent to the marriage. The date of this deposit was not shown, but it may be inferred from the testimony that it was between the date of the marriage and September 15, 1922, when the seventeen parcels mentioned were redelivered to respondents. It appears that a receipt, which respondents were then requested by appellant to sign, contained, in addition to those redelivered, a description of

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the four parcels in question. It further appears that following the first deposit a storage receipt and contract containing limitations of liability was received by respondents; that a list of the parcels was contained therein and, according to the testimony of its officer, it was the practice of appellant, as other deposits were made, to add the latter to a duplicate of the receipt and list retained by it. This receipt was inclosed with a letter calling attention to the terms and conditions contained therein, and requesting that if the terms were not satisfactory the corporation be at once notified. No receipts for subsequent deposits were, according to the testimony of the respondents, issued to them.