Atkinson

This is an. appeal from,, a judgment in plaintiff’s favor in an action for damages for the alleged conversion of certain spars.

The plaintiff’s assignor had delivered to the United States government at the Mare Island Navy Yard a number of spars eighty-five feet in length. .Six of these had been rejected by the government, but were lying at the boom of the Mare Island Navy Yard pending their removal by the plaintiff’s assignor. The defendant had also and about the same time delivered a number of spars of the maximum length of sixty-five feet to the United States government at said navy yard, of which twenty had been rejected, and these were also lying at the boom of the navy yard awaiting removal. This was the condition of things on May 17, 1914, when the defendant wrote the following letter to the general storekeeper in charge of whatever spars were at the boom of the navy yard, viz.:

This letter, or order, was delivered to the captain in charge of a tug of the Oakland Launch and Towboat Company named therein, who was at the same time instructed by the defendant to deliver the spars named in said order when received by him to one R. B. Swayne in Oakland. In executing this order…