Joswich v. Faber

101 N.W. 614, 93 Minn. 387, 1904 Minn. LEXIS 731
Supreme Court of Minnesota·Decided December 2, 1904·No. Nos. 14,122—(38)·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

LEWIS, J.

March 10, 1891, defendant Faber was adjudged insolvent under the Minnesota laws, and A. R. Kiefer was appointed receiver. At that time Faber owned 333 shares of the Silver Cliff Mining Company, a Colorado corporation, which owned a mine at Silver Cliff, Custer county, Colorado; also about 130 shares of the capital stock of another corporation owning a mine at Silver Cliff. He also owned 4,405 shares of the capital stock of the Royal Gold Mining Company, an Illinois corporation, which owned two mines, known as the “Song Bird” and “Grey Eagle,” about two miles distant from Silver Cliff. In making up his inventory, Faber described his mining interests as follows:

Item No. Í4-. A mining interest at Silver Cliff, Colorado.

Item No. 18. 500 shares of Silver Ore Mining Company of Minnesota.

In July, 1892, pursuant to notice, the receiver held' a public auction of the insolvent’s property, and in his report to the court stated

That he struck off and sold to John F. George, for the sum of $16,all his right,title,and interest in the 500 shares of the capital stock- of the Silver Ore Mining Company in the inventory of the insolvent herein described, and all other mining stock therein described.

[389] The sale was duly confirmed by the court, and a conveyance executed by the receiver, in which the mining property is described as

All the right, title, and interest of the party of the first part, as such receiver, in and to the 500 shares of the capital stock of the Silver Ore Mining Company of Minnesota, and the shares of stock of the Silver Cliff Mining Company, in the inventory made by the insolvent and on file in the matter above entitled, described, or referred to, and all the mining stock of every description in said inventory referred to.

In 1896 Kiefer was discharged as receiver, and in 1901 George conveyed his interest to Fr. F. Wilde, and described the same as follows:

All the right, title, and interest of the said party of the first part in and to the 500 shares of capital stock of the Silver Ore Mining Company of Minnesota, and the shares of capital stock of the Silver Cliff Mining Company, purchased by the said party of the first part on the 25th day of July, A. D. 1892, from Andrew R. Kiefer, as receiver of Charles Faber, insolvent. * * * All said stock being included in the inventory made by said .Charles Faber, insolvent, and filed in said court. Hereby intending to sell, assign, and convey to said Fr. F. Wilde all the mining stock embraced in the inventory of said Faber filed in said insolvency proceedings, and all his right, title, and interest in and to said stock in said mines.

Wilde subsequently conveyed to his wife, and she to- plaintiff, her daughter.

This action was brought to reform the conveyances from the receiver to George and from George to Wilde to make them include the 4,405 shares of capital stock of the Royal Gold Mining Company, and to enjoin defendants from disposing of the same, upon the theory that the descriptions were intended to convey Faber’s entire interests in the vicinity of Silver Cliff, although indefinite in not naming all the specific properties. The court found that the 4,405 shares of Royal Gold Mining Company were included in the inventory description above set out, and that the same were advertised and sold by the receiver to ^George, and through mesne conveyances to plaintiff, who was entitled [390] to the certificates.' The assignments of error present the single question, are the findings of fact supported by the evidence?

Considering the inventory alone, as to item No. 18 there is no question. That description is complete enough to designate the property. As to item No. 14, the only definite thing mentioned is that it is a mining interest, located at Silver Cliff, Colorado. There is nothing to indicate whether such interest was evidenced by shares of capital stock in a corporation or founded upon contract or deed. It appears that the receiver, without any attempt to obtain a more particular description, advertised and sold it according to the inventory description, he having no knowledge of the existence of any certificates of stock representing the mining interest at Silver Cliff. It appears from the evidence that after the sale at the request of the purchaser, in order to cover the possibility of there being outstanding stock, words of more general description were inserted in the report of sale as follows: “And all other mining stock therein described,” and at the request of the purchaser the following language was introduced in the deed of conveyance : “And all the mining stock of every description in said inventor)' referred to.” Plaintiff insists that it was the intention of the insolvent that the description under item No. 14 of the inventory, “a mining interest at Silver Cliff,” should include all mining interests owned by him in that vicinity. On the other hand, defendants assert that such was not his intention, and that he did not include in the description under that item anything but the mining interest which he held at Silver Cliff, viz., 333 shares of the Silver Cliff Mining Company, and about 130 shares of the capital stock in another company at that point; that he purposely refrained from scheduling the stock in the Royal Gold Mining Company, because at that time he considered it worthless; and that George bought only the mining interest located at Silver Cliff, which was all the receiver attempted to sell.

It cannot be inferred'from the description in the inventory, notice, report, confirmation, and conveyances that the receiver knew anything about the stock in question, or intended to dispose of it at the sale. This, we believe, is admitted by defendants; but, inasmuch as the Royal Gold Mining Company’s properties were located in the vicinity of Silver Cliff, about two miles distant, and mining property in that vicinity was commonly referred to as the “Silver Cliff mines,” it is claimed [391] that the term as used in the inventory, “a mining interest at Silver Cliff,” included the Song Bird and Grey Eagle mines. Faber did own other mining property immediately at Silver Cliff, and therefore the description in the inventory was correct, unless under such description it was the intention to include all of the mining interests in that vicinity, in which case the language would not be comprehensive enough, and parol evidence was admissible to show what the parties intended. The evidence with reference to the extent of territory referred to by the term “Silver Cliff mines” is contradictory, and very unsatisfactory.

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Joswich v. Faber, 101 N.W. 614, 93 Minn. 387, 1904 Minn. LEXIS 731 (Mich. 1904).

101 N.W. 614 (Joswich v. Faber) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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