Cromwell v. Skinner

62 F.2d 432, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 3768
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 4, 1933
DocketNos. 662, 674
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 62 F.2d 432 (Cromwell v. Skinner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cromwell v. Skinner, 62 F.2d 432, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 3768 (10th Cir. 1933).

Opinion

LEWIS, Circuit Judge.

This suit is bottomed on a breach of trust by Cromwell and E. L. Graves. Graves departed the jurisdiction and could not be served. The bill was then dismissed against Cromwell, and the plaintiffs below brought it here on appeal. We held that Cromwell and Graves were co-trustees and jointly implicated in a breach of the trust, which rendered each liable for the acts of both; and reversed the action of the District Court in dismissing the bill against Cromwell. Skinner et al. v. Cromwell et al. (C. C. A.) 40 F.(2d) 241, 246. In our opinion we set forth the facts' that constituted the trust. The trust property consisted entirely of oil leases on lands in Oklahoma and Louisiana. The acreage in each state is stated in the “Subscription Memorandum” in our opinion on that appeal. The leases stood in the names of Cromwell and Graves, but it will be observed from the memorandum that they had associates who owned interests in them. They proposed to form a syndicate to which these leases were to be and were assigned, and then issue subscription certificates against the leases so pooled to the extent of three-fourths of their estimated value o-f $62,500.00 to those who would purchase the same at $100.00 each certificate.' The declaration of trust, however, was to include as beneficiaries not only purchasers of certificates, but also Cromwell, Graves and their associate owners who were to -retain one-fourth interest in the leases. That memorandum says that subscribers for certificates are “to be included in a declaration of trust combining the interest of all purchasers and present owners.” We also summarized the declaration of trust. The syndicate was formed at Kansas City in the Summer of 1920, and a number of subscriptions for certificates were taken at that time, and while a number of certificates were thereafter issued and sold,, those sold never amounted to three-fourths of the total number, so that Cromwell, Graves, and their associate owners retained more than one-fourth of the certificates. So far as the record shows, their associate owners were not known to subscribers until long after the syndicate' and trust were formed. H. G. Warne was named in the declaration of trust with Cromwell and Graves, as trustees, but he was never active as such. Cromwell and Graves took sole charge of the trust estate.

They later disposed of the Sam Little oil lease on 120 acres in Oklahoma for their sole use and benefit without knowledge at the time on the part of any certificate purchaser. It [433]*433was a part of the trust estate. Certificate-holders brought this suit to compel Cromwell and Graves to account therefor. We held Cromwell should account. In that opinion, we said:

“The decree dismissing the bills, except as to defendants oil companies, will be reversed and the cause remanded to the district court to take that accounting as to the Sam Little lease, and to ascertain the shareholders in the Oldahoma-Louisiana Syndicate for the purpose o.f making distribution among them. The only credits to be allowed in favor of Cromwell against the full amount for which the Sam Little lease was sold, or its reasonable value, are the rentals paid on syndicate leases by Cromwell and Graves. Any unpaid stock subscriptions will be credited to Cromwell and Graves. Costs of this appeal will be adjudged against Cromwell. The dismissal of the bill against the three corporate defendants is affirmed. As to all other parties it is reversed and remanded.”

When the ease went back to the District Court, that court entered an order that Cromwell account to the shareholders of the Oklahoma-Louisiana Syndicate for the Sam Little lease and appointed a master of its own motion to hear the evidence with respect to the accounting, the identity of the certificateholders, and the number of shares to which each is entitled, for the purpose of making distribution among them; that he make findings of fact and conclusions of law from the proof, and report the evidence taken and his findings to the court. Power was reserved in the court to review the master’s findings and recommendations and the evidence taken, and to make other or further findings as shall appear to the court to be appropriate. Cromwell excepted to the master’s report and his findings, recommendations and conclusions therein, which being overruled he has again appealed. The errors that he has assigned and specified in that respect will now be considered.

Cromwell in compliance with Equity Rule 63 (28 USCA § 723) brought in his accounts in the form of debits and credits. As a debit he charged himself with $50,000.00, the highest market value of the Sam Little lease, and as a credit $4,780.00, paid as rentals and royalties on syndicate leases and premiums on bonds. He gave a list of the eertifieateholders and the number of shares of each, which is in accord with the findings of the master, except he credited H. B. Keim with fifty shares whereas the master found that those shares belonged to Mrs.' L. G. Fellows. He credited himself with 232 shares and Graves with 39.20 shares. All of the other shares were in the hands of other parties, the total number of shares being 625.

One of the exceptions specified and argued here relates to the Keim-Fellows fifty shares. Cromwell claims that in the accounting they should be credited to Keim, that Keim paid for only twenty-five shares, and that he should be charged $2,500.00 for the other twenty-five shares. Mrs. Fellows bought the whole fifty shares from Keim and received the certificates, paying him therefor $5,000.00. Keim was a sales agent of Cromwell and Graves to sell shares, and it is conceded that he earned the first twenty-five shares for services so rendered as sales agent, but it is denied that he earned the second twenty-five shares. The evidence on that point involves a second employment of Keim. Cromwell drew a written contract. It required Keim to sell at least $12,500.00 in certificates within a specified time. He refused to sign it. Correspondence ensued between Cromwell and Graves (sometimes one and sometimes the other) and witness Lundeen, who conferred with Keim by letter and in person. Finally certificates for the twenty-five shares were delivered to Keim at the direction of Graves, and he was advised to go on with the sales, Graves saying in a letter which he wrote in answer to a letter to Cromwell from Lundeen on the subject that they would help him in selling the $12,500.00. This letter was dated December 28, 1920. Thereafter, Keim up to July 20, 1921-, went on with sales and had disposed of $8,500.00 in certificates. On that day sale of further shares was stopped at a meeting held in Kansas City attended by Cromwell, Graves, and others who were interested. The syndicate had at that time lost all its leases except on 840 acres in Oklahoma, and it was not believed that further sales should be made. The exception is without merit.

On another exception it is contended that Album E. Skinner and five other eertifieateholders whose total shares are 100.80 were not actual subscribers and purchasers of an interest in the syndicate; that Graves by an agreement to which Cromwell was not a party was trustee for the interest in the syndicate which those shares represented, and that he should be made to account to them for what he got out of the Sam Little lease before Cromwell should be held accountable to said six eertifieateholders. It may be conceded that said six eertifieateholders did not subscribe for and as such pay for their shares. [434]

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Bluebook (online)
62 F.2d 432, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 3768, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cromwell-v-skinner-ca10-1933.