Chase v. South Pacific Coast Railroad

Gibson, C. This is an appeal from an order of the superior court of the county of Santa Cruz denying the defendant corporation’s motion for a change of venue to the city and county of San Francisco.

The grounds of the defendant’s motion are, that the obligation' or liability sued upon did not arise in the county of Santa Cruz; and that the defendant’s principal place of business is in the city and county of San Francisco.

Article 12, section 16, of the constitution of this state, declares: —■

“A corporation or association may be sued in the county where the contract is made or is to be performed, or where the obligation or liability arises or the breach occurs; or in the county w'here the principal place of business of such corporation is situated, subject to the power of the court to change the place of trial as in other cases.”

The appellant contends that-the action is upon a tort arising from a conspiracy between it and certain lumber dealers, which prevented plaintiffs from carrying on their business, and could only be properly brought in the county where the liability arose, or whore the defendant’s principal place of business is situated. And as the complaint does not show where the conspiracy was formed, and the defendant, by the affidavit of its president, having shown [470]that none of the defendant’s alleged co-conspirators reside, or ever have resided, in the county of Santa Cruz, and that defendant’s principal place of business is at the city and county of San Francisco, the court erred in denying its motion for a change of venue to the city and county where it has its principal place of business. Counsel for respondent concedes that the principal place of business of the defendant is correctly set forth in the affidavit, but argues that the cause of action is misconstrued by counsel for appellant; that it is for damages resulting from defendant’s wrongful refusal to receive and transport plaintiffs’ lumber upon and over its railroad, and that as defendant’s affidavit does not show that such refusal was not made in the county where the action was brought, the motion was properly denied.

The question arising on this contention is, What is the cause of action ?

The allegations of the complaint are in substance as follows: That plaintiffs, who were and are partners under the firm name of S. H. Chase & Co., on July 7, 1886, and for more than a year prior thereto, have since been and still are the lessees of certain timber lands and the owners of certain saw-mills, known as the Day mill, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and were engaged in the business of manufacturing sawed lumber at said mills, and selling the same along the line of the defendant’s railroad; that the said railroad, at all times mentioned and referred to, extended from the Santa Cruz Mountains to San José, and was owned and operated by the defendant, which ivas during all said times a railroad corporation, organized and existing under the laws of this state, and was a common carrier of goods for hire to and from any point on its railroad; that in order for plaintiffs to carry on their business profitably, it was indispensable for them to transport their manufactured lumber to market upon defendant’s railroad; and from the beginning of the lumber season of the year 1886, to wit, May 1st, until