Luning Mineral Products Co. v. East Bay Water Co.

The plaintiff Luning Mineral Products Company joined with the London Assurance Corporation in an action against the East Bay Water Company to recover damages for the loss of the plant of the first-named plaintiff, which was destroyed by fire. A demurrer to the complaint was sustained; the plaintiff Luning Mineral Products Company filed an amended complaint and as to that plaintiff the action is still pending in the trial court. The plaintiff London Assurance Corporation declined to amend and has appealed from the judgment which followed its default.

The pertinent allegations of the complaint are that when the plant of plaintiff Luning Mineral Products Company was erected in the city of Richmond, California, a fire hydrant was installed adjacent thereto upon which the Water Company collected a water rental,* 1 or a rate for “stand-by service,” under the ordinances of the city of Richmond and the decisions of the state Railroad Commission, and that said plaintiff paid a proportionate share of said rental as a taxpayer of said city of Richmond; that on August 15, 1922, the entire plant of said plaintiff was destroyed by fire, owing to the lack of water in the mains of said defendant…