Hoyt

— This is an action of claim and delivery, brought by plaintiff against the defendants, for the possession of 230 bars of base bullion, or its alleged value, and damages for its detention.

The allegations of the complaint and the averment of value are specifically denied by the answer, and for a further separate defense, defendants justify under a pledge.

The case was tried by the court without a jury, and judgment rendered in the alternative in favor of defendants. The appeal is taken from the judgment and the order denying plaintiff’s motion for a new trial.

*340 The facts necessary to be stated in connection with the points upon which we have rested our decision are as follows: —

On the thirtieth and thirty-first days of October, 1884, the defendants, Harris and Rhine, partners doing business as merchants at Independence, in the county of Inyo, California, commenced two actions, one for $386.64, and another for $589.11, against the Owens River Mining and Smelting Company, a corporation of this state, having its principal place of business in San Francisco, and its smelting works and mining property in Inyo County; that thereafter writs of attachment were issued at the…