Wing Chung v. Mayor of Los Angeles

By the Court, Crockett, J.: The plaintiffs sue as copartners to recover from the city of Los Angeles the value of money and merchandise belonging to the copartnership, alleged to have been destroyed by the mob during a riot which occurred in that city in October, 1871. The action is founded on the Act of March 27, 1868 (Statutes 1867-8, p. 418), prescribing the conditions on which a city shall be liable for property destroyed in a riot.

The verdict and judgment were for the defendant, and the plaintiffs appeal.

There was evidence tending to show that immediately preceding the riot there were in the city of Los Angeles two [533]rival companies of Chinese, at the head of one of which was Sam Yuen, one of the plaintiffs; that on the day of the riot two Chinamen were arranged before a Justice of the Peace, on the charge of having shot at Yo Hing, the chief of the rival company; that Sam Yuen offered his firm as bail for the accused; that about 5 o’clock in the afternoon six or seven Chinamen were found in the street, near the plaintiffs’ store, shooting at each other; that one of them was fatally wounded, before the arrival of the police; that one of the policemen entered the “corral,” an inclosed space in the rear of the plaintiffs’ store, for the purpose of quelling the disturbance, but found it filled with armed Chinamen, Avho immediately fired upon him, compelling him to retreat; that another policeman, on going to the front of the store, saw a Chinaman there with a pistol in his hand, and followed him into the store, which he found filled Avith armed Chinamen, who immediately closed the door and commenced firing upon him; that during the melee he was wounded with a pistol-shot in the arm, and with great difficulty escaped from the building, after numerous shots were fired at him; that one Thompson then approached the door, but was fired upon from Avithin, and was fatally wounded; after which those within the building continued to fire upon those in the street. That another policeman entered the store and found Sam Yuen there, who immediately leveled his pistol and fired at the officer, as did also several other Chinamen; that Sam Yuen knew the officer to be a policeman; that shortly afterward a large crowd collected in front of the store, and in the course of the afternoon and evening prior to 10 o’clock, assaulted the building, broke in the door and roof, and committed the damage Avhich is complained of.

The defenses are: First, that the plaintiffs, or at least one of them (Sam Yuen), instigated and brought about the riot by his unlawful conduct; second, that the plaintiffs made no attempt to notify the Mayor or Sheriff of the threatened riot, as required by the third section of the Act. That section provides that, in actions of this character, the plaintiff shall not recover if it appears that the damage “was occasioned, or in any manner aided, sanctioned, or permitted