Bentley v. Lucky Friday Extension Mining Co.

223 P.2d 947, 70 Idaho 511, 1950 Ida. LEXIS 209
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 1950
Docket7676
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 223 P.2d 947 (Bentley v. Lucky Friday Extension Mining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bentley v. Lucky Friday Extension Mining Co., 223 P.2d 947, 70 Idaho 511, 1950 Ida. LEXIS 209 (Idaho 1950).

Opinion

*513 PORTER, Justice.

Respondents commenced this action in Shoshone County by filing a petition for a writ of mandamus. It is alleged in such petition that respondents were duly elected as directors and officers of the appellant, Lucky Friday Extension Mining 'Company, to succeed appellant, James A. Allen, and associates as such directors and officers. The question for determination under the petition is the validity of such election. Respondents seek to gain possession from appellant Allen of the books, records and property of appellant mining company and to have and enjoy the right to manage the affairs of the company.

Upon the filing of such petition, an alternative writ of mandamus was issued returnable on March 27, 1950. Appellants appeared in the action and filed a demurrer and a motion for change of venue to Kootenai County, supported by the affidavit of appellant Allen. The motion for change of venue is predicated upon three grounds, (1), that defendants have reason to believe, and there is reason to believe, that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had in Shoshone County; (2), that the convenience of witnesses and the ends of justice would be promoted by the change; (3), that the District Judge, Honorable Albert H. Feather-stone, is disqualified from acting.

It appears from the supporting affidavit of appellant Allen that more than two-thirds of the stockholders of the Lucky Friday Extension Mining Company are non-residents of Shoshone County; that the officers of the company reside in Spokane, Washington, and the managing agent of the company in Kootenai County; that respondents have composed and circulated false and accusatory writings concerning the Lucky Friday Extension Mining Company and James A. Allen, which have been given wide circulation in Shoshone County; that affiant believes and, therefore, states that the accusations against these defendants, because of their general publicity, have been called to the attention of the Honorable Albert H. Featherstone; that there is on file and pending in Shoshone 'County, an action wherein the Lucky Friday Extension Mining Company is plaintiff and the Lucky Friday Silver-Lead Mines Company is defendant, involving substantial rights between these two companies and moneys in excess of $87,000; that such lawsuit is one of the principal assets of the Lucky Friday Extension Mining Company; that the officers and stockholders of the Lucky Friday Silver-Lead Mines Company generally are residents of Shoshone County; that the Honorable Albert H. Featherstone is a director and a large stockholder in the Lucky Friday Silver-Lead Mines Company; and that, therefore, the affiant states that the said Honorable Albert H. Featherstone is disqualified from acting in this suit.

Neither respondents nor Judge Feather-stone filed any affidavits or other showing in opposition to such motion for 'change of *514 venue. A hearing was had on the motion for change of venue on March 25, 1950. At the conclusion of the 'hearing, the court entered an order denying the motion. At the same time, the court entered a further order reciting that an affidavit of bias and prejudice having been filed, “the Honorable Leo McCarty, Judge of the Tenth Judicial District of the State of Idaho, be and he is hereby requested and called in to this judicial district to sit and act in the above entitled action.” From the order denying the motion for change of venue, appellants have duly appealed to this court.

Respondents contend that appellants have waived their right to appeal from the order denying the motion for change of venue. To support such contention, respondents have brought to this court by way of augmentation of the record, a so-called Certificate of Proceedings, signed by Judge Featherstone under date of September 18, 1950. After reciting the alleged proceedings at the time of the hearing on the motion for change of venue, such certificate of proceedings states:

“Counsel was thereupon advised that the Motion for Change of Venue was not well taken, but that, nevertheless, I would deem myself disqualified of my own volition and call in an outside Judge if counsel wished to dispose of the matter in the manner, and counsel were thereupon asked if they could agree upon an outside Judge to be called in to hear the cause.

“Thereupon counsel for defendants and plaintiffs discussed the matter and orally stipulated that the Honorable Leo McCarty, Judge of the Tenth Judicial District of the State of Idaho, be called in to hear the cause.”

On the same day, the court entered an order that the Clerk of the Court file such certificate of proceedings as part of the records in this action and certify the same to the Supreme Court.

The minutes of a court may be corrected or amended to set out the true facts, upon proper application and hearing, by an order nunc pro tunc. This certificate of proceedings does not pretend to be an amendment or correction of the minutes. It is an instrument not authorized by statute and unknown to our practice. The minutes of the court are not before us.

However, if this certificate of proceedings should be construed to be a correction of the minutes, it is not sufficient to show that appellants waived their right to appeal. An appeal from an order denying a motion for change of venue does not stay proceedings in the case. Section 13-211 I.C.; Hay v. Hay, 40 Idaho 627, 235 P. 900; Shultz v. Flynn Transportation Co., 44 Idaho 155, 255 P. 644. After the court had announced that the motion for change of venue would be denied, that he would deem himself disqualified and requested counsel to agree upon a Judge to hear the cause, appellants did not waive *515 their right to appeal by stipulating that Judge MdCarty be called in to hear the case. Their motion for change of venue having been denied, they were entitled to and could do no less than protect their interests in all further proceedings.

By their first assignment of error, appellants urge that it was error for the trial judge to deny defendants’ motion for a change of venue when such motion was based in part upon said judge’s disqualification. In this connection appellants contend that the showing made discloses that Judge Featherstone has a disqualifying interest in the action. Section 1-1801, I.C., reads, in part, as follows:

“A judge can not act -as such in any of the following cases:

“1. In an action or proceeding to which he is a party, or in which he is interested.

In the case of In re Hultner-Wallner, 48 Idaho 507 at 511-512, 283 P. 42 at 43, in discussing the interest which disqualifies a judge under the above statute, this court said: “It has been said that the interest-which disqualifies a judge from trying a case is a personal or property interest, an interest in the event of the suit, or in the judgment which may be rendered therein. In construing a statutory provision the same as that in C.S. § 6499, i. e., that a judge cannot act as such in an action or proceeding in which he is interested, the Supreme Court of California, in Hall v. Superior Court, 198 Cal. 373, 245 P.

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Bluebook (online)
223 P.2d 947, 70 Idaho 511, 1950 Ida. LEXIS 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bentley-v-lucky-friday-extension-mining-co-idaho-1950.