Snow Storm Mining Co. v. Johnson

186 F. 745, 108 C.C.A. 615, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 4165
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 6, 1911
DocketNo. 1,854
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 186 F. 745 (Snow Storm Mining Co. v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snow Storm Mining Co. v. Johnson, 186 F. 745, 108 C.C.A. 615, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 4165 (9th Cir. 1911).

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). Section 6009 of the Revised Codes of Idaho, in which state the suit was brought, declares various agreements invalid unless in writing, among them the following:

“An agreement for the sale of goods, chattels, or things in action, at a price not less than two hundred dollars, unless the buyer accept and receive part of such goods and chattels, or the evidences, or some of them, of such things in action, or pay at the time some part of the purchase money.”

The statute of Washington upon the subject is substantially the same. Section 4577, Ballinger’s Annotated Codes & Statutes.

Stock in corporations is embraced by such statutes. Franklin v. Matoa Gold Min. Co., 158 Fed. 941, 944, 86 C. C. A. 145, 16 L. R. A. (N. S.) 381, and cases there cited.

It is conceded by the appellants that the oral understanding had between the appellee and the appellant Nicholls over the telephone, falls within the statute; but they insist that the appellee’s letter to Nicholls of date December 20, 1905, together with the bond contained therein, and his letter of date December 29, 1906 (1905), to the secretary of the Snow Storm Mining Company, constitute an executed sale, thereby passing title to the stock in question to the appellant Nicholls.

In the Elgee Cotton Cases, 22 Wall. 180, 187, 22 L. Ed. 863, the Supreme Court said:

“It must be admitted there is often great difficulty in determining whether a contract is itself a sale of personal property so as to pass the ownership to the vendee, or whether it is a sale on condition, to take effect or be con-sumated only when the condition shall be performed, or whether it is a mere agreement to sell. It is doubtless true that whether the property passes or not is dependent upon the intention of the parties to the contract, and that intention must be gathered from the language of the instrument. There are, however, certain rules for the construction of such contracts, which are well settled in England, and, we think, also in this country. Mr. Justice Blaek-burn, in his work on Sales, states two of them, and Mr. Benjamin, in his treatise, adds a third. They are as follows:
“First. ‘When, by the agreement, the vendor is to do anything to the goods for the purpose of putting them into that state in which the purchaser is bound to accept them, or, as it is sometimes worded, into a deliverable state, the performance of those things shall, in the absence of circumstances indicating a contrary intention, he taken to be a condition precedent to the vesting of the property.’
“Second. 'Where anything remains to be done to the goods for the purpose of ascertaining the price, as by weighing, measuring, or testing the goods, where the price is to depend on the quantity or quality of the goods, the performance of these things shall also he a condition precedent to the transfer of the properly, although the individual goods be ascertained and they are in the state in which they ought to be accepted.’
“Third. ‘Where the buyer is by the contract bound to do anything as a consideration, either precedent or concurrent, on which the passing of the property depends, the property will not pass until the condition be fulfilled, .even though the goods may have been actually delivered into the possession of the buyer.’
[752]*752“These may be regarded as rules for ascertaining the Intention of the parties. They are in most eases held to be conclusive tests. Though not supported by ail the decisions, they certainly are generally accepted in England, and by most of the courts in this country.”

The second of the above-stated rules of interpretation is not applicable to the present case, but the first and third are. Tested by them, we think- it very clear that the letters and bond relied upon by the appellants do not show an executed sale of the stock in question. It is true that in the letter of the appellee to the secretary of the company, he-says', “I have sold this stock”; but that is by no-means all that he says therein. He commences the letter by saying that lie inclosed certain newspaper notices which were self-explanatory, and which manifestly were the published notices required by the by-laws of the corporation of the holders of its stock who had lost their stock certificates and desired-a new issue in place of those lost or- destroyed. The writer of the letter proceeds:

‘“You will greatly favor me if you will send me a statement over tlie seal and signature of the Snow Storm Co. to the effect that I (not the appellant Nicholls) am the owner of 1,500 shares of Snow Storm stock and that a eer-tificate of same will be issued to me soon as these notices have run the agreed length of time — sixty days.”

And it concludes with these words:

“X have sold this stock and have given a bond to the purchaser to deliver same in sixty days. Now he. wants a statement from you that I own this stock and that you will issue this certificate soon as I have complied with the law in the cáse. Please let me hear from you soon as possible.”

■ As a matter, of course, to ascertain the true meaning of the letter, the whole of it must be considered. The case here is altogether unlike..that of Beardsley v. Beardsley, 138 U. S. 262, 266, 11 Sup. Ct. 318, 34 L. Ed. 928, relied on by the appellants. There the words of the contract involved implied nothing executory, but something executed. Here the letter- under consideration plainly implied that everything was executory and nothing executed. Neither in this letter nor in the one of the appellee-to the appellant Nicholls of December 20, 1905; inclosing ■ the indemnity- bond to him, was there any mention of tlie payment of the consideration for the stock, either as to time of payment or amount thereof, nor was there any statement or -intimation- as to the time or place for the deliveiy of the stock. The letter containing the words-, “I have sold this stock,” so much relied upon by. the appellants, expressly requested that the company issue to.the appellee a new certificate in place of the one destroyed, and also a statement to the effect that he (the appellee) was then the owner '.of the 1','500' shares, which statement the letter further expressly, declared tlie purchaser wanted. Why? 'If the sale had been consummated and the title to the stock had passed to the purchaser,-why should^ the certificate be issued to the seller as owner? The rea.son, we think, is obvious enough from the letters relied upon by the. ’appellahts. It is still more obvious when tlie petition for in-tei-yen.tion- a-n.d: the cro.ssrcómpl.aint filed by the. appellant Nicholls, as well-as-his--testimony-and other, evidence-in the-cause, is considered. It is that the sale had not been consummated, no part of the purchase [753]*753price of the stock had been paid, nor had the time arrived under the contract between the parties for the delivery of the property agreed to be sold.

If anything more be needed to show that the contract relied on by the appellants was not a completed sale thereby passing title to the stock, it is shown by the letter of the appellant Nicholls to the appellee of March 1, 1906, in which, among other things, he says:

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Bluebook (online)
186 F. 745, 108 C.C.A. 615, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 4165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snow-storm-mining-co-v-johnson-ca9-1911.