D. Q. Service Corp. v. Securities Loan & Discount Co.

WASTE, C. J.

This cause was originally and properly appealed to the District Court of Appeal (285 Pac. 335, 286 Pac. 470) prior to the amendment of the “Act authorizing the establishment of municipal courts, etc.,” effective August 14, 1929 (Stats. 1929, p. 837). That court, however, of its own motion, made and entered 'an order dismissing the appeal for lack of jurisdiction on the ground that the amendment should be given a retroactive effect, thereby working a dismissal of this and other pending appeals which had been perfected before the effective date of the change in the law. Our views upon the jurisdictional question involved are fully set forth in the case of

Berg

v.

Traeger

(L. A. No. 12238),

ante,

p. 323 [292 Pac. 495], this day filed. We need only direct our attention, therefore, to the merits of the appeal in this cause.

Plaintiff seeks to recover $430.10 as damages for the alleged conversion of two automobile truck tires. The answer denies the material allegations of the complaint, and by way of affirmative defense alleges that defendant’s assignor, as lessor, had entered into a lease or conditional sales contract with one Lockhart, as lessee, for the sale and purchase of a five-ton autotruck; that, among other things, the contract provided that any accessories added to the property or improvements made thereon should become part of the property and in the event of the termination of the lease for default of lessee should not be removed from the property, but should belong to the lessor; that during the

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lessee’s possession of the truck, and prior to his performance of the conditions of the contract, the plaintiff, at the lessee’s request and with full knowledge of the terms of the contract, removed from the truck, without the defendant’s consent, two tires then attached thereto, and placed thereon the two tires here in dispute, which thereupon became a part and parcel of the truck, and became the property of the defendant. The trial court’s findings follow closely the allegations of defendant’s affirmative defense, with the addition of a finding to the effect that the two tires in dispute cannot be removed without detriment to the truck. Judgment was entered for the defendant.