Hydraulic Mining Co. v. Smith

196 P. 811, 100 Or. 86, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 99
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 5, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 196 P. 811 (Hydraulic Mining Co. v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hydraulic Mining Co. v. Smith, 196 P. 811, 100 Or. 86, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 99 (Or. 1921).

Opinion

BEAN, J.

It appears from the record that Mrs. Elizabeth A. Smith still holds the promissory notes of the Hydraulic Mining Company for the $12,500 originally loaned by her, which are wholly unpaid. It is shown by the evidence that the interest thereon [95]*95is in arrears from 1915. It further appears that defendant, Elizabeth A. Smith, holds the title to the mining property of the Hydraulic Mining Company under the conveyance of March 28, 1902, renewed by deed of June 10, 1907, and she still holds an interest in the property conveyed by the trust deed which has been foreclosed, in lieu of $11,500 par value of the bonds of the Three Pines Timber Company, as additional security for the loan, in accordance with the terms and provisions of the instrument of defeasance dated and acknowledged on June 10, 1907.

Defendant, Elizabeth A. Smith, set forth in her answer and established by her testimony the facts, in substance, as herein set forth.

The Hydraulic Mining Company by its reply put in issue the allegations of the answer and set up five further and separate defenses to the matters alleged in defendant’s answer, using the language of plaintiff’s brief, as follows:

“First: The foreclosure proceeding, the stipulation and the decree, heretofore referred to.
“Second: That the defendant received the bonds and the note $2,039.75 in full satisfaction of the debt.
“Third: The statute of limitations as to the original debt, and the original conveyance of the mining-property.
“Fourth: The statute of limitations as to the second conveyance of the mining property.
“Fifth: That the debt was paid by the sale of the property upon execution and the subsequent payment of certain small amounts of money.”

The plaintiff, upon this appeal, submits that the following questions are involved in this suit, namely:

“1. The effect of the stipulation and decree exonerating the mining property from any claim upon the part of the defendant.
[96]*96“2. Conceding' that the original debt was not paid by the delivery of the bonds, was it not paid by the foreclosure and sale thereunder?
“3. Was the original debt, and a right of action upon the conveyance of the mining property, barred by the statute of limitations?
“4. Was the right of action upon the second conveyance of the mining property, barred by the statute of limitations?
“5. Were the bonds delivered to the defendant as collateral security, or in full payment of the debt?”

As to the plaintiff’s claim that the notes of defendant, Elizabeth A. Smith, were paid by the delivery of the $12,500 par value of the bonds of the Three Pines Timber Company, on or about June 10, 1907, it is sufficient to say that it is not borne out by the testimony. The evidence is overwhelmingly to the contrary. It shows that the bonds of the Three Pines Timber Company were taken by Mrs. Smith at the earnest solicitation of the two officers and owners of the plaintiff corporation, George E. Howland, president, and Jefferson D. Cook, secretary, in lieu of timber land to which she held the title as an additional security for the loan, in order that the Three Pines Timber Company might convey the land to a trustee and provide for the bond issue. At the time of the delivery of the timber company bonds to Mrs. Smith the plaintiff, by its officers, executed a memorandum which, after reciting the fact of the indebtedness to Mrs. Smith in the sum of $12,500 and the fact that the bonds of the Three Pines Timber Company had been delivered to Mrs. Smith, and the Hydraulic Mining Company had conveyed the mining property to Mrs. Smith, that she, the. said Elizabeth A. Smith, should reconvey unto the first party, the Hydraulic Mining Company, the said mining prop[97]*97erty when she should have been paid the full sum of $12,500 with interest at 8 per cent per annum from July 1, 1907, and reciting further that there should be paid to Elizabeth A. Smith the sum of $12,500, either by the retirement and liquidation of the bonds or from the sale of the mining premises, and in the event that the indebtedness should be paid from the mining property or the sale thereof, that thereupon the bonds should be delivered to the Hydraulic Mining Company or its assigns. It should be noted here that the equity of the plaintiff in the bonds mentioned has never been foreclosed. The claim of plaintiff that the bonds were taken as payment is in direct conflict with its formal agreement in writing executed at that time, and left where it remained with W. I. Yawter, who was agent for Mrs. Smith until the time of his death in 1916: It is the claim of Mr. Jefferson D. Cook, who is now the principal party in interest, that the written agreement showing that Mrs. Smith held the mining property as additional security for the notes was not to be delivered to Mrs. Smith, and that the mining property was only held to secure the note of $2,039.75 given at that time for interest that was in arrears. This claim was never made on behalf of plaintiff during the lifetime of Mr. Yawter. We concur in the findings of the trial court to the effect that the $12,500 has never been paid, and that Mrs. Smith holds the title to the mining property as partial security therefor.

It is asserted on behalf of plaintiff that the title of Mrs. Smith to the mining property was released by virtue of the stipulation made in the foreclosure suit of Vawter v. Three Pines Timber Co., et al., filed February 11, 1913. In the second amended complaint in that suit the Hydraulic Mining Company, Jeffer[98]*98son D. Cook and George E. Howland were brought in as defendants. In this complaint it was alleged in substance that in addition to the bonds held by Elizabeth A. Smith as security, she also held as additional security the conveyance of the mining property from the Hydraulic Mining Company which is involved in the present suit. No pleadings of any nature whatsoever were filed by the Hydraulic Mining Company in the defense of the foreclosure suit. On April 28, 1913, the stipulation was entered into, stipulating for the foreclosure of the trust deed and in regard to sundry matters and dealings relating to timber bonds with one Steel. The stipulation provided for dismissal of the suit as against Cook and Howland and the Hydraulic Mining Company. Paragraph 5 of the stipulation specifies the lands upon which the decree was operative. Paragraph 6 describes lands on which the decree was operative subject to prior liens. Paragraph 5 also includes within its description the lands of the Hydraulic Mining Company, as we understand, for the purpose of describing the timber thereon which had been transferred to the Three Pines Timber Company, and excepting those certain mining claims and mining rights contained in 181.22 acres of the land. Paragraph 7 provides as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
196 P. 811, 100 Or. 86, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hydraulic-mining-co-v-smith-or-1921.