Reed v. Hollingsworth

135 N.W. 37, 157 Iowa 94
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMarch 14, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 135 N.W. 37 (Reed v. Hollingsworth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reed v. Hollingsworth, 135 N.W. 37, 157 Iowa 94 (iowa 1912).

Opinion

Deemer, J.

— The facts must be gathered from the allegations of the petition, as the demurrer admitted all such facts as were properly pleaded. From the statements of the petition we extract the following, deemed material to a determination of the case:

The Main Gulch Company was organized in March, 1906, as a private corporation for pecuniary profit, under the laws of the state of Colorado, for the purpose of locating, purchasing, and operating mines and mining property. The principal place of business of the Main Gulch Company, as' stated in the articles of incorporation, was Silver Plume, Colo.; but provision was therein made for the maintenance of offices at such other places as might be deter[97]*97mined. . . . The affairs of the Main Gulch Company were to be managed by a board of five directors, and in. April, 1908, the individual defendants, Albert E. Hollingsworth, Ozias Walker, Elmer A. Johnson, and‘Ered C. McMillan, and one George A. Huffman, were elected directors of that company, of whom Hollingsworth was made president; McMillan, vice-president; and Johnson, treasurer. And said persons continued'as such officers and directors of the Main Gulch Company from the time of their election down to and including the times of the happening of all of the matters complained of. All of said officers resided in the state of Iowa, and most of them in the city of Des Moines, Iowa. After the organization of the Main Gulch Company, its capital stock was placed upon the market and sold to many persons, including plaintiffs; plaintiffs in that manner hecoming the owners severally of shares of stock aggregating about 98,500 shares.
In March, 1906, with the approval of the probate court defendant William C. Catren, as administrator of the ■ estate of B. C. Catren, sold, hy written contract and lease, to one Chauncey I. Burt a large amount of valuable mining property described in the petition for the sum of $35,000, and in May, 1906, Burt sold and transferred the said contract and lease to the Main Gulch Company, and conveyance of the property and assignments of the lease were duly executed by Catren, administrator, to Burt, and by Burt to the Main Gulch Company, and these conveyances and assignments duly executed were deposited in a bank in Georgetown, Colo., in escrow as provided in the contracts of sale and assignment. By the terms of the said instruments, there were to be paid to Catren, administrator, $10,000 on or before March 31, 1907, $10,000, on or before March 31, 1908, and $15,000 on or before March 31, 1909. Said instruments also required that 17% percent of all ore mined from the property should be paid to Catren, administrator, and be by him credited upon the last of the above payments of the purchase price. The Main Gulch Company immediately entered into the operation and development of said mines and mining property, and continued so down to the time of the surrender of possession of the property hv Hollingsworth to Catren as hereinafter stated, and the Main Gulch Company also paid Catren, [98]*98administrator, the $10,000 due March 31, 1907, and also 17% per cent of the proceeds of the ore taken by it from said mines.
In February, 1908, the time for the payment of the remainder due upon said contract was, by a supplemental agreement, extended as follows: $2,000 to be paid March 31, 1908; $2,000, September 30, 1908; $1,000, January 31, 1909; $5,000, March 31, 1909; $3,000, September 30, 1909; and the remaining $12,000, less such sums as had been received from the 17% per cent of the ore mined, March 31, 1910. After the extension, the Main Gulch Company paid to Catren, administrator, the $2,000 due in March, 1908, and 17% per cent of the proceeds of the ore meanwhile mined, so that on September 30, 1908, all of the said purchase price of the said mine had been paid except the sum of $20,225.94, of which remaining-sum the first installment was $2,000 payable September 30, 1908.
The contracts between Catren and Burt and between Burt and the Main Gulch Company and the extension agreement between Catren and the Main Gulch Company each provide for a declaration of forfeiture, upon failure to make payments, of which ten days’ written notice shall be given; but the plaintiffs and the other stockholders of the Main Gulch Company (prior to the happening of the things hereinafter stated) had no accurate information of the terms of the said contracts in relation to the forfeiture or the times when payments became due. Cognizant of the want of information of the plaintiffs and of the other stockholders of the Main Gulch Company, and just prior to the time the first remaining payment became due, September 30, 1908, the defendant Hollingsworth, president of the Main Gulch Company, had a conversation with some-of the plaintiffs and other stockholders of the Main Gulch Company for the purpose of arranging for any future payments that might become due Catren, and the plaintiffs, and other stockholders relied upon these statements and representations of Hollingsworth and believed that arrangements had been made or would be made by the officers of the Main Gulch Company for such remaining payments. From the time of the purchase of the property by the Main Gulch Company, down to about the 30th of September, [99]*991908, it was represented by the individual defendants, officers of the Main Gulch Company, to various ■stockholders of that company, including the plaintiffs or some of them, that the said mines were producing largo quantities of valuable ore, assaying in the neighborhood of $54 per ton and in excess thereof over and above smelter and transportation charges, and . the plaintiff and other stockholders were thereby led to believe, and did believe, that the property was producing such an income as would then, or in the near future, pay the indebtedness of the company to Catren and also produce a profit to them as stockholders.
No meeting of the stockholders of the Main Gulch Company was called by the defendant Hollingsworth as he had represented, or by any other person, for the purpose of arranging for any of said payments or considering the same, but on or about the said 30th day of September, 1908, the defendants ’ Hollingsworth, Walker, Johnson, McMillan, and Catren entered into a conspiracy for the purpose of defrauding the Main Gulch Company and its stockholders, including plaintiffs, of said mines and mining property and depriving them of all their interests and rights therein, by having Catren, administrator, declare a forfeiture of the said contract and lease and thereafter sell the said property to the individual defendants for the said remainder of the consideration, $20,225.94, due Catren, administrator, from the Main Gulch Company. In pursuance of the conspiracy, Hollingsworth went to Silver Plume, Colo., about September 30, 1908, the date the first payment fell due, and on the 3d of October, 1908, Catren, administrator, presented to Hollingsworth, at Silver Plume, a notice directed to the Main Gulch Company, stating that he, Catren, administrator, did elect to declare and did thereby declare a forfeiture of the said contracts of purchase. Upon the presentation of that notice, Hollingsworth accepted the service for the Main Gulch Company and without right and without further notice, and without the knowledge of the plaintiffs or any of the stockholders of the Main Gulch Company, other than the defendants, and without awaiting the ten days provided for by the contracts, and in violation of the terms thereof, Hollingsworth upon said notice immediately surrendered all of said mines and mining property .to Catren.

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Bluebook (online)
135 N.W. 37, 157 Iowa 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reed-v-hollingsworth-iowa-1912.