Lindholm

An appeal by plaintiff from a judgment of nonsuit in an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff as a result of the alleged negligent acts of defendant’s employees.

The correctness of the trial court’s ruling on the motion for nonsuit depends mainly upon the determination of the question of whether appellant, at the time he received the injuries, was, as he claims, an invited licensee upon the premises where the accident occurred, or was, as the trial court declared by its judgment of nonsuit, “a trespasser or at best a bare licensee.”

The following are the facts: During the lunch hour on the day of the accident, appellant, a hoisting engineer employed by the King Coal Company, whose premises adjoin those of the Moore Shipbuilding Company in Oakland, entered the yards of said shipbuilding company for the purpose of visiting a relative aboard a vessel which he supposed was docked in said yards. The entire shipbuilding yards are inclosed by a fence, the only entrance thereto from the land side being through a gate at which a watchman is stationed, but plaintiff was allowed to enter said yards unchallenged on account of having been in there frequently…