Junction Placer Mining Co. v. Reed

153 P. 564, 28 Idaho 219, 1915 Ida. LEXIS 126
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 20, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 153 P. 564 (Junction Placer Mining Co. v. Reed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Junction Placer Mining Co. v. Reed, 153 P. 564, 28 Idaho 219, 1915 Ida. LEXIS 126 (Idaho 1915).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, C. J.

The Junction Placer Mining .Company brought this action for the purpose of quieting its title to certain placer mining claims situated in see. 27, tp. 38 N. of Range 4 E., B. M., and to quiet its title to certain water rights connected with said placer mining claims. The action was originally brought against M. O. Reed and others, but subsequently M. O. Reed and others transferred all of [222]*222their interests to the Clearwater Mining Company, a corporation, and thereafter it was made a defendant and the action was prosecuted against the Clearwater Mining Company and others. Said M. 0.' Reed died subsequent to the institution of the action and his administratrix and heirs were made parties by supplemental complaint. The issues before this court are between the respondent, the Junction Placer Mining Company and the appellants, the Clearwater Mining Company and G-. A. Henkel. The defendants, the Western Land Company and the Clearwater Timber Company, did not appeal from the judgment of the trial court.

The Clearwater Mining Company answered denying the material allegations of the complaint and claimed title to certain of said mining claims by reason of the location thereof. The answer also contained an affirmative allegation to the effect that the plaintiff corporation had failed to comply with the laws of the state, and therefore had no legal capacity to bring and maintain this action, and as a further defense alleged an abandonment of said claims by the plaintiff corporation and uninterrupted possession of said mining' claims and property since the first day of September, 1912, and that since the 31st of March, 1910, the defendant Henkel and his wife had been the absolute and unqualified owners of the entire capital stock of the plaintiff corporation.

The defendant Henkel filed a separate answer in which he denied that the mortgages set out in the complaint were paid, and alleged that he was the owner of said mortgages and of a judgment amounting to $1,111.16, which is a lien against said mining claims and property, and also alleged that he is the owner of another mortgage given to secure $225, and that said debt remained unpaid and in full force, and prayed that the complaint and supplemental cross-complaint of the plaintiff be dismissed and that all of the rights of the several defendants as set forth in the answer in the affirmative defenses be decreed to be superior to any claim of the said plaintiff, and for such other and further relief as was just and equitable in the premises.

[223]*223Defendants M. O. Reed, Frank K. Bernard, John Groves, William Bush and Minnie F. Walker answered denying the material allegations of the complaint and set up defenses similar to those set up in the answer of said Clearwater Mining Co., and prayed that all of the rights of said answering defendants as set forth in their affirmative answer be decreed to be superior to. any claim of the plaintiff.

Upon the issues thus made the cause was tried before the court without a jury, and finding of facts, conclusions of law and decree and judgment were entered in favor of the plaintiff, substantially quieting the title to said mining claims, water rights and property in the plaintiff corporation.

We are met at the beginning with motions to strike the transcript from the files and to dismiss the appeal, on the ground that the transcript was not prepared within the time provided by law and the rules of the court. Both motions are based on the same ground, to wit, that more than forty days elapsed between the date of the service of the notice of appeal and the filing of the transcript and the service of the stenographer’s transcript.

Upon the authority of Fischer v. Davis, 24 Ida. 216, 133 Pac. 910, both motions are denied. Also, see Coon v. Sommercamp, 26 Ida. 776, 146 Pac. 728.

It is next contended that the appellants’ brief contains no enumeration of errors relied upon as provided by rule 45 of the rules of this court. After said motion was made the court permitted the appellants to insert in their brief their assignments of error. In the first three assignments it is contended that the court erred in entering judgment and in quieting the title to said mining claims in the plaintiff, since it appears that the plaintiff is a foreign corporation and had not complied with the laws of this state governing such corporations, and had no legal status in the courts of this state at the time the suit was instituted. The other error is that the court erred in quieting title to said premises in the plaintiff when the record shows the existence of unsatisfied mortgages and judgments which were subsisting and equitable liens against the property involved.

[224]*224The first question presented is as to whether the respondent had a legal right to bring and maintain this action, for the reason that it was a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Washington. The contention of the appellants is based upon the fact that William Curry is the designated agent of the company, andi subsequent to his designation as such removed to the state of Washington and took up his residence in the town of Clarkston, which is near the border of the state of Idaho.

The following facts appear from the record:

The plaintiff is a corporation organized in May, 1897, under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Washington, and it duly filed its articles of incorporation with the county recorder of Nez Perce county on June 4, 1907, and filed its designation of agent and designated therein William Curry of Orofino, Nez Perce county, as its authorized agent in the state of Idaho. The record also shows that the Junction Mining Company acquired title to the placer mining claims involved in this action on January 31, 1908, and the trial court found that at the time it accepted and received the deeds of conveyance conveying said placer mining claims to it, it had) fully complied with the laws of the state of Idaho relative to foreign corporations,. and also that said deeds of conveyance were valid; and found that the plaintiff had caused the assessment work on each and all of said mining claims to be done since. it acquired title thereto, and we think that said findings are fully supported by the evidence.

The evidence shows that said Curry, who is the designated agent of the plaintiff corporation, removed to the state of Washington in 1909. Curry thereafter resided at Clarkston, in Washington, very near the town of Lewiston and was frequently in the state of Idaho; that he never had resigned as the agent of the plaintiff and did not notify the Secretary of State of his removal, and had never notified the officers of the company that he had removed to the state of Washington.

[225]*225There is nothing in the first contention of appellants, to wit, that the plaintiff had failed to comply with the laws of the state of Idaho applicable to foreign corporations. The respondent in this action is not seeking to enforce a contract, and so far as the record shows, it never had contractual relations with the appellants unless it was with the man Henkel who was plaintiff’s manager for some years. The plaintiff is attempting by this action to protect the title to its property that it had acquired years ago, and to prevent its confiscation and to eject trespassers therefrom.

Sec. 2792, Rev.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 P. 564, 28 Idaho 219, 1915 Ida. LEXIS 126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/junction-placer-mining-co-v-reed-idaho-1915.