Van Horn v. Ricks Water Co.

Haynes, C. Action to recover a reward. The cause was tried by the court without a jury, and, at the con[450]elusion of all the evidence, the defendant moved for a nonsuit, and said motion was granted, and judgment.of dismissal entered against the plaintiff. This appeal is from the judgment upon the judgment-roll and bills of exception, one of which was to the refusal of the court to sustain plaintiff’s motion to strike out defendant’s second defense, and the other contains all the evidence given upon the trial, and specifies the granting of the nonsuit as an error of law.

The defendant is a corporation engaged in supplying the city of Eureka and its inhabitants with water, the source of its supply being Elk river. The complaint alleges that in December, 1893, the defendant, for the purpose of protecting said waters from pollution, posted notices setting out a copy of section 374 of the Penal Code, which provides a penalty for polluting, in any of the ways therein enumerated, the waters of any stream from which water is drawn for the supply of any city, and appended thereto the following: “ The undersigned will therefore pay the sum of five hundred dollars ,as a reward for the arrest and conviction of any persons violating the provisions of the above section, by polluting the waters of Elk river in any manner specified therein.”

The complaint further alleged: “That thereafter, to wit, on or about the second day of September, 1894, plaintiff detected and observed one Lawrence Padrick in the act of polluting the waters of Elk river by depositing therein and upon the banks of said stream fecal matter,” and that he caused the arrest and" conviction of Padrick therefor.

The defendant by its first defense put in issue the allegations of the complaint, and for a second defense alleged, in substance that, prior to the alleged act of pollution, the plaintiff was the duly appointed and acting agent of the defendant in detecting, observing, and reporting any and all alleged acts of polluting the waters of said river, for which he was to be paid according to the value of the work so done or the time occupied therein; that prior to the arrest of said Padrick he, as [451]such agent and servant, reported to defendant that he had detected said Padrick in the commission of said alleged act of pollution, and that, in pursuance of said agreement, defendant fully paid the plaintiff therefor what the same was reasonably worth.