Copper Belle Mining Co. v. Costello

100 P. 807, 12 Ariz. 318, 1909 Ariz. LEXIS 102
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 20, 1909
DocketCivil No. 1094
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 100 P. 807 (Copper Belle Mining Co. v. Costello) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Copper Belle Mining Co. v. Costello, 100 P. 807, 12 Ariz. 318, 1909 Ariz. LEXIS 102 (Ark. 1909).

Opinion

KENT, C. J. —

This is an action brought by Martin Costello against the Copper Belle Mining Company, a corporation of the state of West Virginia, and the Copper Belle Mining Company of Arizona, a corporation of the territory of Arizona (which we will hereafter refer to as the “West Virginia company” and the “Arizona company,” respectively), to recover on certain promissory notes given by the West Virginia company to one G-leeson and subsequently assigned by him to Costello, and to foreclose the liens covered by two mortgages upon certain mining property of the West Virginia company given to secure the notes. The complaint contained two causes of action; the first cause of action being on a certain promissory note for the sum of $15,100, secured by a first mortgage on the property and for a certain amount expended by Costello for assessment work upon the mines ■covered by the terms of the mortgage, and the second cause of action set up the execution of four certain promissory notes aggregating $53,000, secured by a second mortgage on the same property, and alleged that a certain amount of interest was due upon said last-mentioned notes, although the principal thereof was not due and payable at the time of the filing of the complaint. Judgment was prayed for the full amount of the principal and interest of the note set up in the first cause of action, for the amount expended for assessment work, for the interest due on the notes set up in the second cause ■of action, for a determination of the present value of the four promissory notes set up in the second cause of action, and for •a decree foreclosing the mortgage liens upon the property of the West Virginia company. Upon the first trial of the action, the district court found for the plaintiff for the full •amount of the claims set up in the first cause of action, and for a certain amount of interest due bn the notes set up in the second cause of action. An appeal was taken from the judgment so entered, and upon such appeal the judgment was affirmed by this court as to the amount found due upon the first cause of action, but modified by striking out therefrom the amount found by the trial court to be due for interest on •the notes set up in the second cause of action, for the reasons given in our opinion, reported in 95 Pae. 94, without prejudice to the plaintiff to thereafter enforce such rights as he [322]*322might have under his second cause of action. The case thereafter came on for trial in the district court upon the plaintiff’s second cause of action as set up in his original complaint and upon the amended answers of the two defendant corporations subsequently filed, and upon a pleading filed at the time of the trial by the plaintiff with the leave of the court, in the nature of a supplemental complaint which set up that, since the judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff on his first cause of action, the mining property covered by the mortgages had been sold by the sheriff on execution to satisfy the judgment obtained upon the first cause of action, for the sum of $89,346.25, and that the balance thereof, after the payment of the amount of such judgment, to wit, the sum of $63,964.92, had been paid into court to be applied by the court so far as it might be necessary for the payment of the notes set up in the second cause of action, with interest; and further set up the expenditure by the plaintiff of a certain amount of money for assessment work upon the property since the filing of the original complaint. To this supplemental complaint answers were duly filed by the defendant corporations. Judgment was rendered for the plaintiff for the sum , of $65,616.45, to be satisfied only out of the proceeds in the hands of the court from the sale above referred to, and against the Arizona company for' costs, no personal judgment being rendered against the West Virginia company. From this judgment and the denial of a motion for a new trial, the defendant corporations have appealed.

Except for the facts set forth in the supplemental complaint, the pleadings and the evidence upon the second trial were substantially the same as upon the first. A full statement of the ease is to be found in our former opinion (11 Ariz. 335, 95 Pac. 94), and need not be repeated here. It is proper to state, however, that, in addition to the facts established upon the first trial, the evidence showed and the court found upon the second trial the following facts: That on February 4, 1902, the West Virginia company executed and delivered to Gleeson, for value, its four promissory notes aggregating $53,000, secured by its second mortgage on the property. That according to the terms of the mortgage plaintiff was authorized to have the assessment work required by law to be done performed on said mining claims, and the [323]*323amount so expended by the plaintiff was found. That before maturity the notes were assigned by Gleeson to the plaintiff for value. That in April, 1904,. the Arizona company acquired by conveyance from tbe West Virginia company the mining claims covered by the mortgage. That at the time of the execution and delivery of the notes and mortgage the West Virginia company had assets largely in excess of its debts and liabilities. That the defendant Gleeson did not make any false or fraudulent representations to the West Virginia company as to the physical condition of the mines or the financial condition of the company. That the officers of the company had ample opportunity to investigate the conditions for themselves, and did not rely upon any representations of Glee-son in regard thereto. That on February 28, 1903, the West Virginia company was adjudged a bankrupt, and thereafter certain creditors of said bankrupt proved their .claims, and thereafter the Arizona company became the owner of such claims by assignment. That the notes sued upon were given, and the mortgage securing the same became a lien upon the property, more than a year prior to said adjudication in bankruptcy, and more than five months prior to the filing of the petition on which said adjudication was made. That the plaintiff did not present the notes sued on nor the indebtedness thereon as a claim in the bankruptcy proceedings, but prayed leave therein to sue in the proper court for the foreclosure of his lien on said security for the satisfaction of the debt. That since the judgment in favor of the plaintiff on the first cause of action was entered, an order of sale was issued out of the district court commanding the sheriff to sell on execution the mining property covered by the mortgage, and that the proceeds thereof, less the amount of the judgment on the first cause of action, had been paid into court by the sheriff to be applied as far as necessary to the payment of the notes secured by the second mortgage and covered by the second cause of action.

Of the numerous assignments of error set up by the appellants, many are not argued by counsel in his brief, and some, having been already disposed of by our former opinion, require no consideration. The appellants claim that the court erred in not granting a continuance of the trial at the time the plaintiff by leave of the court filed his supplemental com[324]*324plaint. The granting of such a continuance was a matter in the sound discretion of the trial court. As no facts were presented either to the trial court or to this court in appellant’s brief to show that the defendants were prejudiced by the refusal to grant the continuance, we may not hold that the trial court abused its discretion in its refusal.

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Bluebook (online)
100 P. 807, 12 Ariz. 318, 1909 Ariz. LEXIS 102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/copper-belle-mining-co-v-costello-ariz-1909.