People ex rel. English v. Roberts

Beatty, C. J. This is an action to recover from the owner of a barge and lighter employed in the business of transferring merchandise to and from vessels in the harbor of San Francisco the amount of dockage due under the regulations of the relators, the board of harbor commissioners. The judgment of the superior court was for the plaintiff, and the defendant appeals from the judgment upon the sole ground that the facts as found do not support it.

The findings, among other things, show: —

“ 2. That bounding upon and within that portion of said bay there are a large number of wharves, docks, and slips, all of which have been constructed by and are owned by the people of the state of California, and plaintiffs, as such board, have jurisdiction over and possession and control of said wharves, docks, and slips. These wharves are about six hundred feet long, extend, ing from the mainland into the waters of the bay, and are about one hundred feet wide, and between them [661]there are spaces, called slips, of about two hundred feet in width. The wharves are kept in repair, and the slips kept dredged to a sufficient depth to permit vessels of all tonnage to enter them and make fast to and use the wharves, and defendants could not have used said wharves, docks, and slips, as hereinafter found, if they had not been kept in repair and dredged by plaintiffs as such board.

“ 3. Prior to the twentieth day of November, 1885, said board of state harbor commissioners, pursuant to the powers conferred upon it by law, by an order duly given and made, and entered in the records of its proceedings, fixed and regulated the rates of dockage to be paid by and collected from lighters at one cent per ton per day, whenever said lighters discharged or loaded at any wharf within its jurisdiction" and control, or when they discharged into or loaded from any vessel while lying at any of said wharves, or while lying with cargo on board in any of the slips within its jurisdiction and control, and said board, on the twenty-fifth day of June, 1885, fixed and regulated the rates of dockage to be paid by and collected from vessels and all classes of water-craft that might use or make fast to any of the wharves, piers, slips, quays, landings, or thoroughfares within its jurisdiction and control, and at the same time and by the same order fixed and regulated the rates of dockage to be paid by and collected from barges of two hundred registered tons or under, at two cents per ton per day, and that said barges, while taking in cargo, or receiving or discharging ballast, or occupying outside berths, or moored in any of the docks, slips, basins, or canals, should be subject only to half-rates, namely, one cent per ton per day.