Van Horn v. Ricks Water Co.

Action to recover a reward. The cause was tried by the court without a jury, and, at the con *450 elusion of all the evidence, the defendant moved for a nonsuit, and said motion was granted, and judgment.of dismissal entered against the plaintiff. This appeal is from the judgment upon the judgment-roll and bills of exception, one of which was to the refusal of the court to sustain plaintiff’s motion to strike out defendant’s second defense, and the other contains all the evidence given upon the trial, and specifies the granting of the nonsuit as an error of law.

The defendant is a corporation engaged in supplying the city of Eureka and its inhabitants with water, the source of its supply being Elk river. The complaint alleges that in December, 1893, the defendant, for the purpose of protecting said waters from pollution, posted notices setting out a copy of section 374 of the Penal Code, which provides a penalty for polluting, in any of the ways therein enumerated, the waters of any stream from which water is drawn for the supply of any city, and appended thereto the following: “ The undersigned will therefore pay the sum of five hundred dollars ,as a reward for the arrest and…