Holden v. A. F. Coats Lumber Co.
Holden v. A. F. Coats Lumber Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
There is a large number of assignments of error but they may be logically discussed in two groups: Objections to the admissibility of certain evidence; and objections to certain instructions to the jury based upon such evidence.
“The A. F. Coats Lumber Company contemplated that they would have to have logs to run their mill, and in order to do that they bought a certain tract of timber at the head of Buley Creek, and it was deemed the most practical way to get them out to have a com*608 pany that would attend to that part of the work of driving and booming the logs.”
The articles of incorporation of both companies were offered in evidence from which it appears that the Lumber Company had a capitalization of fifty thousand dollars and the Boom Company a capital stock of two thousand dollars. The minutes of the first meetings of both organizations were introduced, from which it appears that the stockholders of both were identical, and that their subscriptions of stock in the smaller company were in exact proportion to their holdings in the larger. It further appears from the evidence that O. A. Shultz, manager of the Lumber Company, and a director of the Boom Company, was active in the negotiations whereby it was sought to obtain plaintiff’s consent to the digging of the ditch; that one Peter Jackson, a foreman in the actual work of digging the ditch, was an employee of the Lumber Company and received his pay from it; that the Boom Company derived the funds with which to carry on its work, including some miles of logging railroad and equipment, from A. F. Coats, the heaviest stockholder in the Lumber Company, and from the Lumber Company itself, without other evidence of debt than promissory notes and open account; and that the Boom Company had not handled any logs other than those belonging to the Lumber Company. All of this evidence was admitted over the strenuous objection that none of it tended to prove any liability upon the part of the Lumber Company. With this contention we cannot agree. It is probably true that no one item thereof is sufficient evidence upon which to base a verdict, but each detail certainly constitutes a circumstance throwing light upon the situation and when
The objections to the instructions, with a single exception, are predicated upon the admissibility ”of the evidence already discussed, so we need not consider them further.
One instruction, however, is based upon the theory that there was evidence that the earth and rock were dumped into the river by one or both of the defendants, whereas the defendants insist that there is a failure of proof in this respect. An examination of the bill of exceptions discloses abundant evidence that it was done by the Boom Company in the progress of its work and therefore the instruction was not erroneous.
We find no error in the record and the judgment is affirmed. Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HOLDEN v. A. F. COATS LUMBER CO.
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