Bringham

One H. C. Bowen was the owner of certain narrow gauge railway property called the Sierra Valleys and Mohawk Railroad, which in different parts of the line was in various stages of advancement; the section on which rails had been laid began at the eastern terminus of the line, a place called Junction in Lassen county, and extended thence northwest and westerly a distance of fourteen miles; the roadbed had been graded something more than sixteen miles beyond the end of the laid track, and the right of way for the road had been obtained a few miles yet farther to the westerly terminus at Mohawk valley in Plumas county; the total distance from said Junction to Mohawk valley being about thirty-five miles. In October, 1894, the defendant H. L. W. Knox agreed in writing with said Bowen to construct additional track on said line, commencing at the end of the fourteen miles already laid and proceeding westward about nine miles to Rock Quarry, a point a few hundred feet west of a place called Kerby Mill. This contract was not, nor was any memorandum thereof, filed in the office of the recorder of either of said counties; so that it was void under the provisions of section 1183 of the Code…