Rogers v. Penobscot Mining Co.

154 F. 606, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4564
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 27, 1907
DocketNo. 2,421
StatusPublished
Cited by70 cases

This text of 154 F. 606 (Rogers v. Penobscot Mining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rogers v. Penobscot Mining Co., 154 F. 606, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4564 (8th Cir. 1907).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The demurrers of the defendants were separate. They were sustained on the merits and on the same ground — that the complainants did not show themselves to he either legal or equitable owners of stock of the Penobscot Company. The assignments of error specify this ruling alone. But counsel for the appellants contend that the court below was without jurisdiction of this case because the complainants were citizens, and the Penobscot Company was a corporation, of the state of South Dakota, and counsel for the appellees insist that the court was without jurisdiction because the defendants were not lawfully served with a legal summons. The first question is fundamental. It cannot be waived. It conditions the power of the court below to take any action in the case, except to remand the case to the state court from which it was removed, and an appellate court is not at liberty to disregard it, although the ruling upon it is not specified as error.

The second objection assails the method of the exercise of the power of the court. It relates to procedure only. It may be waived by appearance, by trial upon the merits, by failure to object at the proper time, and hence it should not be and may not be considered until an assignment of errors has been made which presents it and an opportunity has been afforded both parties to prepare a record for its consideration by an appellate court. The appellees, who have secured bv the decree below all the relief which they seek, cannot now appeal, nor can they confer jurisdiction upon an appellate court to hear, to consider, or to decide questions suggested by an assignment or by an argument of cross-errors. Guarantee Co. v. Phenix Ins. Co., 59 C. C. A. 376, 379, 124 Fed. 170, 173. They must await their defeat. If that never comes, they will never suffer from the errors which they seek to suggest. If a decree is ultimately rendered against them, they [610]*610will' have an opportunity to secure a review of the rulings they challenge. They cannot be now considered. We turn to the first question.

Did the fact that the Penobscot Company was a corporation of the state of the citizenship of the complainants oust the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court? In a determination of the jurisdiction of the national courts and the right to remove causes of action to them, indispensable parties only should be considered, because all others may be dismissed or disregarded, if their presence would oust or restrict the jurisdiction or the right. Boatmen’s Bank v. Fritzlen, 135 Fed. 650, 658, 68 C. C. A. 288, 296; Geer v. Mathieson Alkali Works, 190 U. S. 428, 432, 23 Sup. Ct. 807, 47 L. Ed. 1122; Bacon v. Rives, 106 U. S. 99, 104, 1 Sup. Ct. 3, 27 L. Ed. 69; Wormley v. Wormley, 8 Wheat. (U. S.) 421, 451, 5 L. Ed. 651; Wood v. Davis, 18 How. (U. S.) 467, 475, 15 L. Ed. 460; Sioux City Terminal R. & W. Co. v. Trust Co. of N. A., 82 Fed. 124, 126, 27 C. C. A. 73, 75; Celia, Adler & Tilles v. Brown (C. C.) 136 Fed. 439, 442; Celia v. Brown, 75 C. C. A. 608, 620, 144 Fed. 742, 754. An indispensable party is one who has such an interest in the subject-matter of the controversy that a final decree cannot be rendered between the other parties to the suit without radically and injuriously affecting his interest, or without leaving the controversy in such a situation that its final determination may be inconsistent with equity and good conscience. Every other party who has any interest in the controversy or subject-matter which is separable from the interest of the other parties before the court, so that it will not necessarily be directly and injuriously affected by a decree which does complete justice between them, is.a proper party to a suit. But he is not an indispensable party, and if his presence would oust the jurisdiction of the court the suit may proceed without him. Sioux City Terminal R. & W. Co. v. Trust Co. of N. A., 27 C. C. A. 73, 75, 82 Fed. 124, 126.

The foundation of this suit was the agreement of 1902 between Mait-land and Byrns and the latter’s performance of it. Byrns contracted to obtain the options to purchase the real estate in Maitland’s name, and in consideration thereof Maitland agreed that he would put the title to the mining claims in the Penobscot Company, and that he would retain three-fourths and convey to Byrns one-fourth of the 200,000 shares of stock of the corporation which were to be issued for the options. It is true that Maitland’s alleged agreement was not in terms to vest the title to the mining claims in the corporation, but to convey to it the options upon them. But it was so in legal effect, because he agreed to vest the title to the options in the company and either by loans or by the purchase of the treasury stock to furnish the money to pay the unpaid balances of the purchase prices of the claims. In the face of this agreement, with the title to the options in the company, he could not hold the title to the claims against the company, or against any party or privy to the agreement of 1902. As soon as the company paid the unpaid balances on the options, the vendors and Maitland, who took his deed from them, held the title to these claims in trust for the company and for the parties to the original agreement. Vendors of real estate and those claiming under them hold their titles in trust for their ven-dees.. Bispham’s Principles of Equity, § 364. The legal effect, there[611]*611fore, of Maitland’s contract of 1902 was that he would vest the title to the mining claims in the Penobscot Company and the title to 50,000 shares of its stock in Byrns, so that Maitland should hold the 150,000 shares and Byrns 50,000, subject to any liability of the company for loans, or to any sales of treasury stock to Maitland to raise the money to pay the unpaid balances of the purchase prices under the options. Byrns completely performed his contract. He secured the options. Thereupon the contract became executed on his part and executory on Maitland’s part. Thereafter Maitland held the options, the titles which followed them, and the 200,000 shares of stock he obtained by virtue of the contract, in trust to convey the titles to the company and to transfer the 50,000 shares to Byrns or his assigns, and a perfect cause of action in equity had accrued to Byrns to enforce the specific performance of the contract and the execution of the trust created under it. Howe v. Howe & Owen B. B. Co. (C. C. A.) 154 Fed. 820, decided May 1, 1907. The complainants are assigns of Byrns and stand in his shoes. The relief they pray is that Maitland convey the titles to the mining claims to the company, that he be enjoined from otherwise disposing of or incumbering them, and that they have such further relief as may be equitable. The Penobscot Company was not a party to the contract whose performance this suit is brought to enforce. Its interests cannot be injuriously affected by any decree which shall finally adjudicate the controversy between the other parties to this suit, and the complainants seek no relief against it. That company was not, therefore, an indispensable party to the suit, and as the citizenship of the complainants and the defendant Maitland, the indispensable parties to it, was diverse, the court below had jurisdiction of it, and the motion to remand it to the state court was properly denied.

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

Related

Renner v. Crisman
127 N.W.2d 717 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1964)
Charles Resnik v. La Paz Guest Ranch
289 F.2d 814 (Ninth Circuit, 1961)
Sodak Distributing Company v. Wayne
93 N.W.2d 791 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1958)
Boris v. Moore
152 F. Supp. 595 (E.D. Wisconsin, 1957)
United States v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.
338 U.S. 366 (Supreme Court, 1950)
TEXAS & PAC. R. CO. v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen
60 F. Supp. 263 (W.D. Louisiana, 1945)
Kincade v. Mikles
144 F.2d 784 (Eighth Circuit, 1944)
Jordan v. Marks
55 F. Supp. 204 (W.D. Louisiana, 1944)
Buss v. Prudential Ins. Co. of America
126 F.2d 960 (Eighth Circuit, 1942)
MacBryde v. Burnett
41 F. Supp. 661 (D. Maryland, 1941)
Cochran v. M & M TRANSP. CO.
110 F.2d 519 (First Circuit, 1940)
Huffman v. Baldwin
82 F.2d 5 (Eighth Circuit, 1936)
Ottenheimer Bros. v. Libuwitz
74 F.2d 858 (Fourth Circuit, 1935)
Chicago, M., St. P. & P. R. Co. v. Adams County
72 F.2d 816 (Ninth Circuit, 1934)
Brown Shoe Co. v. Carns
65 F.2d 294 (Eighth Circuit, 1933)
Greer Inv. Co. v. Booth
62 F.2d 321 (Tenth Circuit, 1932)
Komenarsky v. Brode
160 A. 713 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1931)
Shore v. Union Drug Co.
156 A. 204 (Court of Chancery of Delaware, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 F. 606, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4564, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-penobscot-mining-co-ca8-1907.