Hanley v. Beatty

117 F. 59, 54 C.C.A. 445, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4405
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 12, 1902
DocketNo. 820
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 117 F. 59 (Hanley v. Beatty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hanley v. Beatty, 117 F. 59, 54 C.C.A. 445, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4405 (9th Cir. 1902).

Opinion

MORROW, Circuit Judge.

The case of Kennedy J. Hanley, complainant, against Charles Sweeny, F. Lewis Clark, and the Empire State-Idaho Mining & Development Company, a corporation, defendants, was a suit in equity, brought in the circuit court of the United [60]*60States for the district of Idaho, Northern division, on the 18th day of March, 1899. The suit involved complainant’s claim to the ownership •of eleven twenty-fourths of certain mining ground described as the "Skookum Mining Claim,” located in the Yreka mining district, in the county of Shoshone, in the state of Idaho. The complainant’s right to eight twenty-fourths, or an undivided one-third interest in the Skookum mining claim, was based upon certain proceedings which •complainant claimed amounted to a purchase of that interest from one Cunningham, the administrator of an estate, who sold the interest in settling up the estate in the course of probate proceedings in the state court of Idaho; but the administrator had conveyed this interest to a mining company, which also claimed to be a purchaser from the administrator, and had received a deed of conveyance of this interest in the course of such probate proceedings, and had conveyed the same to the defendant the Empire State-Idaho Mining & Develops ment Company. Complainant’s title to the remaining three twenty-fourths, or an undivided one-eighth, interest in the Skookum mining •claim was derived through mesne conveyances from the original grantee by patent from the government of the United States. This latter title had been conveyed by the complainant to the defendants Charles Sweeny and F. Lewis Clark by deed dated April 30, 1898, deposited on that day in the Exchange National Bank of Spokane, in the state of Washington, in escrow, to be delivered to the defendants Sweeny and Clark upon certain stipulated conditions. Complainant claimed that the defendants Sweeny and Clark had obtained possession of this deed wrongfully and contrary to the terms of the escrow agreement. It appears from the bill of complaint that on the 30th day of April, 1898, the complainant was the owner of 100,000 shares of the capital stock of the Chemung Mining Company, a company whose mining claims were located in Yreka mining district, in the state of Idaho; that prior to April 30, 1898, some negotiations had passed between complainant and Clark and Sweeny involving the sale to them of complainant’s 100,000 shares of the capital stock of the Chemung Mining Company and his one-third and one-eighth interests in the 'Skookum mining claim; that complainant offered to sell to Clark and Sweeny his 100,000 shares in the Chemung Mining Company, at 20 cents a share, or $20,000; that he also offered to sell his one-third and one-eighth interests in the Skookum mining claim at the rate of $30,000 for the whole claim; this would have amounted to $13,750 for .his two interests in that claim. The complainant claimed that in these negotiations he receded from the latter proposition, and agreed to take $10,000 for his one-third and one-eighth interests in the Skookum claim, but adhered to his proposition to sell his 100,000 shares in the Chemung Mining Company for $20,000. He claimed that both of these offers were accepted by Clark and Sweeny, and that at their request he made two separate deeds for his one-third and one-eighth interests in the Skookum claim; that the 100,000 shares of the Chemung Mining Company stock were to be placed in one envelope under an escrow agreement of sale, and the two deeds for one-third and one-eighth interests in the Skookum claim in another envelope, also under an escrow agreement to sell, and both of these [61]*61envelopes were to be deposited with the Exchange National Bank at Spokane, Wash., to be taken up at specified dates and upon the conditions therein named. He claimed that the final agreements under which the deeds for his two interests in the Skookum claim and the xoo,ooo shares of stock in the Chemung Mining Company were deposited in escrow were that he should sell, and Clark and Sweeny would purchase, his 100,000 shares of the Chemung mining stock for $20,000, arid his one-third and one-eighth interests in the Skookum. claim for $10,000, making two separate and distinct transactions. He claimed that accordingly the x 00,000 shares of stock were placed in escrow in one envelope, to be delivered to Clark and Sweeny on the payment of $20,000, and the two deeds for his interests in the Skookum. claim were placed in escrow in another envelope, to be delivered to Clark and Sweeny upon the payment of $10,000. Clark and Sweeny, on the other hand, claimed in their answer that the agreement was-that Hanley was to sell his 100,000 shares in the Chemung Mining Company and his one-eighth interest in the Skookum claim for $20,000, and his one-third interest in the Skookum claim for $10,000;. that two envelopes were accordingly prepared, and the deeds and stock placed therein in escrow, in accordance with the terms of the agreement as understood by Clark and Sweeny. The complainant claimed that this arrangement of these two agreements in escrow was without his knowledge and was a fraud upon him. When the terms of this-escrow expired, the complainant found that Clark and Sweeny had paid the $20,000, and taken up thé escrow agreement for the 100,000-shares of stock in the Chemung Mining Company, and the deed for the one-eighth interest in the Skookum claim, and had left the deed for the one-third interest in the Skookum claim in the other envelope;. this latter deed not having been accepted by Clark and Sweeny because in the meantime litigation respecting this one-third interest had proceeded so far that Clark and Sweeny considered that complainant’s claim to that interest was of no value. It was alleged in the bill of complaint that the defendants Clark and Sweeny procured the agreement from complainant to sell his interests in the Skookum mine by covin and fraud, the particulars of which were set forth in the bill. It is alleged that the said Skookum mine had been reached for working purposes by certain workings known as “East Chance,” which were in the exclusive control of the defendants Clark and Sweeny; that they had declared at the time of the making of the agreement by which they took the option to purchase complainant’s interests that the workings of the Last Chance mine had penetrated to the said Skookum claim, and that they knew the ground was of little value and' contained no ore. It was alleged that they had stated that they desired to purchase complainant’s interests in the Skookum claim, not because the claim was of any value for ore, but-because it was surrounded by other claims which were of value, and would be useful to them for combining it for working purposes with the said other ground, and give breadth, bulk, and character to their plan to put the-consolidated land on the market. It was alleged that the complainant had no means of personal knowledge as to the value of said ground except its situation with reference to other claims of which he hadi [62]*62some knowledge; and, relying upon these representations made by the defendants Clark and Sweeny that they had not in their workings penetrating the said claim found any ore or ore body, and that they had no more information about the same than the complainant had, he fixed the price of his entire interest in said Skookum claim at $10,000.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mercelis v. Wilson
6 P.R. Fed. 42 (D. Puerto Rico, 1912)
Chemung Mining Co. v. Hanley
81 P. 619 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1905)
Sweeney v. Hanley
126 F. 97 (Ninth Circuit, 1903)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
117 F. 59, 54 C.C.A. 445, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4405, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hanley-v-beatty-ca9-1902.