Copper Belle Mining Co. v. Gleeson

134 P. 285, 14 Ariz. 548, 1913 Ariz. LEXIS 108
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJune 6, 1913
DocketCivil No. 1263
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 134 P. 285 (Copper Belle Mining Co. v. Gleeson) 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. Gleeson, 134 P. 285, 14 Ariz. 548, 1913 Ariz. LEXIS 108 (Ark. 1913).

Opinion

FRANKLIN, C. J.

Assumpsit for money had and received. The contention of appellant, in substance, is that appellee has money belonging to it which in equity and good conscience he ought to return. On this theory the suit was prosecuted for its recovery. Omitting the unessentials, the facts may be stated as follows: The San Remo Copper Mining Company was the owner, subject to the paramount title of the United States, of some mining claims situate in Cochise county Arizona. Mr. Gleeson, the defendant below and the appellee here, had performed labor thereupon for which he had not been paid. He brought suit against the San Remo Copper Mining Company and recovered a judgment in the sum of $3,300, in which it was adjudged and decreed that he had a lien on said claims for his work and the same was foreclosed [550]*550in said decree and the mining claims ordered sold in satisfaction thereof. This judgment was obtained .March 31, 1904. On March 10, 1902, the San Remo Copper Mining Company was also indebted to appellant, the Copper Belle Mining Company of West Virginia, and to secure such indebtedness it executed a mortgage on said mining claims in the sum of $6,000. The mortgage lien, however, was subsequent and subordinate to the lien of Mr. Gleeson. On March 17, 1908, an order of sale was issued to enforce the payment of the Glee-son judgment, and at a sale thereunder, on April 9,1908, Glee-son purchased all the right, title, and interest of the San Remo Copper Mining Company in and to said mining claims, for the sum of $3,000. In due course a certificate of sale was issued to him and a duplicate copy thereof filed in the county recorder’s office of Cochise county. Prior to the redemption presently referred to, the appellant endeavored to purchase from Gleeson the rights he had acquired at the foreclosure sale and offered to pay him the amount of his judgment against the San Remo Copper Mining Company, provided he would convey or cause to be conveyed to it the mining claims purchased by him at said sale. This Gleeson emphatically declined to do. Failing to get a voluntary conveyance from Gleeson, the appellant on October 12,1908, redeemed the property by paying to the sheriff the sum of $3,240, the amount for which the property was sold, with eight per cent interest. The redemption money remained in the hands of the sheriff until November 25, 1908, on which date it was paid to Glee-son, and thereafter, on June 25, 1909, the sheriff executed to the Copper Belle Mining Company of West Virginia, the appellant, the usual deed in pursuance of said redemption.

It appears that in the year 1906 the San Remo Copper Mining Company neglected to perform the annual assessment work on the mining claims in question, and one Martin Fitzmaurice made a location of said claims at the expense and instance of appellee and for his use and benefit, the notice of location whereof being duly recorded, and on November 27, 1908, he made conveyance of the claims to Gleeson. Prior to and at the time of said redemption the appellant had full knowledge of the fact of said location by said Fitzmaurice and that the annual work had not been done on said claims for the year 1906. On December 28, 1910, appellant, the Copper Belle [551]*551Mining Company of West Virginia, brought an action against the appellee, Gleeson, to quiet its title to said mining claims, in which suit the appellee, by virtue of the Fitzmaurice location, was adjudged to be the owner and entitled to the property. The validity of the location of said mining claims by Fitzmaurice and the effect of said locations on the right, title, and interest of the San Remo Copper Mining Company, in the ground included in said claims, had not been determined prior to or at the time of said redemption from the sheriff’s sale. The validity of the location was not determined prior to the judgment in the action of appellant to quiet the alleged title to the property. The court below found, among other matters, that the redemption was made by appellant without any mistake of fact, and that there was a sufficient consideration for the same in that it thereby acquired, to the extent of the debt secured by its mortgage, all the right, title, and interest of the San Remo Copper Mining Company in and to the said claims and the right to question and set up the invalidity of the location by Fitzmaurice, and concluded that the Copper Belle Mining Company of West Virginia, appellant, is not entitled to recover from John Gleeson, the appellee, any part of the said sum of $3,240 paid by it for the redemption of the mining claims.

Under the facts recited, can it be said that appellee has in his hands money which, in equity and good conscience, belongs •to and ought to be paid to appellant?

Assumpsit for money had and received is of an equitable character, and it may in general be maintained by any legal evidence showing that the defendant has received or obtained possession of money of the plaintiff which in equity and good conscience he ought to pay over to the plaintiff. Smith v. Farmers & Merchants' Bank, 2 Cal. App. 377, 84 Pac. 348; Law v. Uhrlaub, 104 Ill. App. 263; Henderson v. Koenig, 192 Mo. 690, 91 S. W. 88; Carpenter v. Southworth, 165 Fed. 428, 91 C. C. A. 378; Moses v. McFarlane, 2 Burr. 1009.

But the question whether a person ought in equity and good conscience to pay over, or whether it is uneonseientious for him to retain what he has received from another, is a question dependent upon the facts of each particular ease. The maxim, “Ex aequo et bono,’’ usually applied in such cases, as interpreted, is “in justice and good dealing.” 1 Story, Equity [552]*552Jur.. sec. 965. What might be against conscience or contrary to justice and good dealing in one case and under one set of facts would not be in another.

In this case is there a right, or equity, or conscience upon which the defendant can plant himself ? It is perfectly clear from the record in this ease that the consummation devoutly wished by both appellant and appellee was title to the claims of the San Remo Copper Mining Company. This was the goal that each was striving for. Gleeson was doubtful if the title he had acquired at the foreclosure sale was good, but to make assurance doubly sure he was anxious to satisfy his judgment and take whatever interest his judgment debtor had in the property, and as a further safeguard to obtain whatever rights that inured to the relocation by Fitzmaurice. The appellant, failing in its efforts to get a voluntary conveyance from Glee-son, wished to prevent him from getting a sheriff’s deed which might cure any possible defects in his title by virtue of the Fitzmaurice location and clothe itself with power to contest the relocation of the property. With this impelling object of defeating Gleeson in getting title, it was anxious to pay over the redemption money under the circumstances and thereby step into the shoes of the San Remo Copper Mining Company in order to assert its title and contest the validity of such relocation.

The general rule is that a purchaser at a judicial or execution sale takes all the rights of the parties whose interests are sold, and it is on this principle that the right of such a purchaser to bring a suit to quiet title to the real estate purchased has been recognized. The conduct of Gleeson in this transaction cannot be criticised. His conduct was peculiarly open and aboveboard. There was no element of fraud, concealment, misrepresentation, undue influence, violation of confidence reposed, or other inequitable conduct in the matter.

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Bluebook (online)
134 P. 285, 14 Ariz. 548, 1913 Ariz. LEXIS 108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/copper-belle-mining-co-v-gleeson-ariz-1913.