its nature or by mercantile custom, treated as the equivalent of any other unit. "Goods" means chattels or merchandise in storage, or which has been or is about to be stored. "Holder" of a receipt means a person who has both actual possession of such receipt and a right of property therein. "Order" means an order by indorsement on the receipt. "Owner" does not include mortgagee or pledgee. "Person" includes a corporation or partnership or two or more persons having a joint or common interest. "To purchase" includes to take as mortgagee or as pledgee. "Purchaser" includes mortgagee and pledgee. "Receipt" means a warehouse receipt. "Value" is any consideration sufficient to support a simple contract. An antecedent or pre-existing obligation, whether for money or not, constitutes value where a receipt is taken either in satisfaction thereof or as security therefor. "Warehouseman" means a person lawfully engaged in the business of storing goods for profit. (2) A thing is done "in good faith" within the meaning of this act, when it is in fact done honestly, whether it be done negligently or not. Prior acts. SEC. 59. The provisions of this act do not apply to receipts made and delivered prior to the taking effect of this act. Repeal of conflicting acts. SEC. 60. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. Name of act. SEC. 61. This act may be cited as the "Warehouse Receipts Act." WATER COMPANIES. See, also, Civ. C. §§ 548 to 552. An act to regulate and control the sale, rental, and distribution of appropriated water in this state, other than in any city, city and county, or town therein, and to secure the rights of way for the conveyance of such water to the places of use. Approved March 12, 1885; stats. 1885, p. 95. The people of the State of California, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows: Use of appropriated public water. SECTION 1. The use of all water now appropriated or that may hereafter be appropriated, for irrigation, sale, rental, or distribution, is a public use, and the right to collect rates or compensation for use of such water is a franchise, and except when so furnished to any city, city and county, or town, or the inhabitants thereof, shall be regulated and controlled in the counties of this state by the several boards of supervisors thereof, in the manner prescribed in this act. Supervisors may fix rates. SEC. 2. The several boards of supervisors of this state, on petition and notice as provided in section three of this act, are hereby authorized and required to fix and regulate the maximum rates at which any person, company, association, or corporation, having or to have appropriated water for sale, rental, or distribution in each of such counties, may and shall sell, rent, or distribute the same. Petition for fixing rates. SEC. 3. Whenever a petition of not less than twenty-five inhabitants, who are taxpayers of any county of this state, shall, in writing, petition the board of supervisors thereof, to be filed with the clerk of said board, to regulate and control the rates and compensation to be collected by any person, company, association, or corporation, for the sale, rental, or distribution of any appropriated water, to any of the inhabitants of such county, and shall in such petition specify the persons, companies, associations, or corporations, or any one or more of aem, whose water rates are therein petitioned to be regulated ir controlled, the clerk of such board shall immediately cause wich petition, together with a notice of the time and place of hearing thereof, to be published in one or more newspapers pubished in such county; and if no newspaper be published therein. then shall cause copies of such petition and notice to be posted in not less than three public places in such counties, and such publication and notice shall be for not less than four weeks next before the hearing of said petition by said board: such notice to be attached to said petition shall specify a day of the next regular term of the session of the said board not less than thirty days after the first publication or posting thereof. for the hearing of said petition, which shall impart notice to all such persons, companies. associations, and corporations mentioned in such petition, and all persons interested in the matters of such petition and notice. Such board may also cause citations to issue to any person or persons within such county to attend and give evidence at the hearing of such petition, and may compel such attendance by attachment. Hearing of petition-Value of water works. SEC. 4. At the hearing of said petition the board of supervisors shall estimate, as near as may be, the value of the canals. ditches, fumes, water-chutes, and all other property actually used and useful to the appropriation and furnishing of such water, elonging to and possessed by each person, association. company, or corporation, whose franchise shall be so regulated and controlled: and shall in like manner estimate as to each of such persons, companies, associations, and corporations. their annual reasonable expenses, including the cost of repairs, management, and operating such works; and. for the purpose of such ascertainment may require the attendance of persons to give evidence, and the production of papers, books, and accounts. and may compel the attendance of such persons and the production of papers, books, and accounts by attachments, if within their respective counties, Rules to be observed in fixing rates. Sec. 5. In the regulation and control of such water rates for each of such persons, companies, associations, and corporations, such Loard of super isors may establish different rates at which water may and shall be sold, rented or distribu4! as the case may be; and may also establish different rates and compensation for such water so to be furnished for the several different uses, such as mining, irrigating, mechanical, manufacturing, and domestic, for which such water shall be supplied to such inhabitants, but such rates as to each class shall be equal and uniform. Said board of supervisors, in fixing such rates, shall, as near as may be, so adjust them that the net annual receipts and profits thereof to the said persons, companies, associations, and corporations so furnishing such water to such inhabitants shall be not less than six nor more than eighteen per cent upon the said value of the canals, ditches, flumes, chutes, and all other property actually used and useful to the appropriation and furnishing of such water of each of such persons, companies, associations, and corporations; but in estimating such net receipts and profits, the cost of any extensions, enlargements, or other permanent improvements of such water rights or water works shall not be included as part of the said expenses of management, repairs, and operating of such works, but when accomplished, may and shall be included in the present cost and cash value of such work. In fixing said rates, within the limits aforesaid, at which water shall be so furnished as to each of such persons, companies, associations, and corporations, each of said board of supervisors may likewise take into estimation any and all other facts, circumstances, and conditions pertinent thereto, to the end and purpose that said rates shall be equal, reasonable and just, both to such persons, companies, associations, and corporations, and to said inhabitants; and each such board of supervisors shall designate what proportion of the rates so fixed shall be for the said annual reasonable expenses of each of such persons, companies, associations or corporations, and what proportion of the rates so fixed shall be for the said net annual receipts and profits to such persons, companies, associations or corporations. The said rates when so fixed by such board, shall be binding and conclusive for not less than one year next after their establishment, and until established anew or abrogated by such board of supervisors, as hereinafter provided. And until such rates shall be so established. or after they shall have been abrogated by such board of supervisors, as in this act provided, the actual rates established and collected by each of the persons, companies, associations, and corporations now furnishing, or that shall hereafter furnish, advertising. If the warehouseman after a reasonable effort is unable to sell such goods, he may dispose of them in any lawful manner, and shall incur no liability by reason thereof. The proceeds of any sale made under the terms of this section shall be disposed of in the same way as the proceeds of sales made under the terms of the preceding section. Other remedies. SEC. 35. The remedy for enforcing a lien herein provided does not preclude any other remedies allowed by law for the enforcement of a lien against personal property nor bar the right to recover so much of the warehouseman's claim as shall not be paid by the proceeds of the sale of the property. Warehouseman's liability ceases, when. SEC. 36. After goods have been lawfully sold to satisfy a warehouseman's lien, or have been lawfully sold or disposed of because of their perishable or hazardous nature, the warehouseman shall not thereafter be liable for failure to deliver the goods to the depositor, or owner of the goods, or to a holder of the receipt given for the goods when they were deposited, even if such receipt be negotiable. How negotiable receipt may be negotiated. SEC. 37. A negotiable receipt may be negotiated by delivery— (a) Where, by the terms of the receipt, the warehouseman undertakes to deliver the goods to the bearer, or (b) Where, by the terms of the receipt, the warehouseman undertakes to deliver the goods to the order of a specified person, and such person or a subsequent indorsee of the receipt has indorsed it in blank or to bearer. Where, by the terms of a negotiable receipt, the goods are deliverable to bearer or where a negotiable receipt has been indorsed in blank or to bearer, any holder may indorse the same to himself or to any other specified person, and in such case the receipt shall thereafter be negotiated only by the indorsement of such indorsee. Same. SEC. 38. A negotiable receipt may be negotiated by the indorsement of the person to whose order the goods are, by the terms of the receipt, deliverable. Such indorsement may be in blank, to bearer or to a specified person. If indorsed to a |