The person, company, or firm to whom is offered for sale, pledge, or trade, worn or used links, pins, journal bearings, or other worn, used, or detached appendages of railroad equipment, or scrap metal of iron, brass, or steel appertaining to such equipment or to a railroad track, before purchasing or dealing in it, shall ascertain whether the ownership thereof is lawfully derived, by bill of sale or otherwise, from a company, or the superintendent, managing agent, or receiver of the company. When the right or title to such article of metal is drawn in question in any suit, the person, company, or firm dealing in such metal, or its assignee, party thereto, must make prime-facie proof of title and ownership so derived.

If it appears, prima facie, from the evidence on the trial that any of the articles or metals in controversy were unlawfully obtained, and mixed or confused with other scrap metal, it shall be deemed a confusion of goods unless the party claiming against the title of the company establishes, prima facie, a lawful title from or through a railroad company to the residue.