Suttori

Action to recover damages for alleged conversion by the defendant of five tons of fish, being the property of the plaintiff. Judgment in favor of the defendants, and the plaintiff appeals therefrom.

The court found that at the time of the alleged conversion the plaintiff was not the owner of nor was he entitled to the possession of the fish mentioned in the complaint; and that it was not true that at said time, and while the plaintiff was the owner of and entitled to the immediate possession of the said fish, the defendants wrongfully took and carried away said personal property and converted the same to their own use. Appellant contends that these findings are not sustained by the evidence.

All of the fish included in this controversy were white sea bass. According to the testimony produced by the plaintiff, he was the master of a boat called the “Jupiter,” and on the twenty-fifth day of June, 1917, with his crew, he was fishing in that boat at Santa Barbara Island. Off the coast of that island, according to his testimony, he caught four tons of sea bass. Later in the day, and while four miles distant from Santa Catalina Island, he cast his net and caught in it about three tons…