Sunshine Mining Co. v. Treinies

19 F. Supp. 587, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1679
CourtDistrict Court, D. Idaho
DecidedMay 29, 1937
DocketNo. 1338
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 19 F. Supp. 587 (Sunshine Mining Co. v. Treinies) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Idaho primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sunshine Mining Co. v. Treinies, 19 F. Supp. 587, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1679 (D. Idaho 1937).

Opinion

CAVANAH; District Judge.

The Sunshine Mining Company brings this action in interpleader under an Act of Congress 28 U.S.C.A. § 41 (26) as to the respective rights and ownership of the defendants to 15,299 shares of stock, issued by it and the dividends accrued and accruing thereon, and that it be discharged from all liability, except its obligation of recognizing the true owner. The controversy has a complicated history as to the efforts of the parties to have their interest in the stock determined, and the jurisdictions invoked would make one wonder if there is any other court remaining, known to American jurisprudence, in which the parties may insist for a decision.

The plaintiff is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Washington, and authorized to do business in Idaho. A diversity of citizenship between it and the defendants Masons, Harrisons, Hansons, and Keane, and the requisite jurisdictional amount exists. The defendant Cheney is the .receiver in the case of the Seattle First National Bank, administrator in the estate of John H. Pelkes and Evelyn H. Treinies, against the defendants Masons, Harrisons, Hansons, and Keane, and the Sunshine Mining Company, pending in the state superior court of Washington.

About August 4, 1934, Masons instituted suit in the state district court of Idaho, against John Pelkes, Frances Thinnes and Pierre Thinnes, Evelyn Treinies and the Sunshine Mining Company, in which the plaintiffs alleged that John Pelkes had acquired 30,598 shares of stock in the Sunshine Mining Company; that he had sold and disposed of all of that stock except 16,000 shares, which he had caused to be issued to Evelyn Treinies; and that Katherine Mason, of the 16,000 shares standing in the name of Evelyn Treinies, was the owner of 15,299 shares, which was acquired with the knowledge of the rights of the plaintiff in that suit. Thereafter all of the defendants in that action appeared and a trial was had resulting in a decree in the Idaho district court decreeing to Katherine Mason the ownership of 7,-649 shares and to Evelyn Treinies 8,351 shares of the 16,000 shares of the capital stock of the Sunshine Mining Company. The Thinnes were dismissed in that action prior = to the entry of the decree, and the decree there required Evelyn' Treinies to surrender her certificate of stock for cancellation and when that was done the Sunshine Mining Company was to issue to Katherine Mason 7,649 shares and to Evelyn Treinies 8,351 shares and to pay the dividends accrued to each of the parties according to their ownership, and in the event that Evelyn Treinies failed to surrender her certificate within ten days the Sunshine Mining Company should cancel the certificate and issue one to Katherine Mason for 7,649 shares and pay to her the dividends accrued thereon, and issue to Evelyn Treinies a certificate for 8,351 shares of the 16,000 shares, upon her complying with the decree. An appeal was [589]*589taken from that decree to the Supreme Court of the state of Idaho, by Evelyn Treinies, and the Sunshine Mining Company and the Masons cross-appealed.

John Pelkes and Evelyn Treinies failed to comply with that decree and surrender the certificate of stock, and the Sunshine Mining Company, for the purpose of staying the decree, canceled the certificate of stock standing in the name of Evelyn Treinies and reissued in lieu thereof 7,649 shares in the name of Katherine Mason and 8,351 shares in the name of Evelyn Treinies, and deposited the same with the clerk of the state district court. About July 23, 1936, the appeals of the parties were determined by the Supreme Court of Idaho (Mason v. Pelkes, 59 P.(2d) 1087) in which the decision of the trial court was modified to the effect that Katherine Mason was found to be the owner of 15,299 shares of the stock together with the dividends accrued and accruing thereon, and ordered the clerk of the court to properly indorse the certificate and deliver the same to Katherine Mason. Complying with that decision, the Sunshine Mining Company, on August 20th, issued to Katherine Mason 15.299 shares, which were in lieu of the certificate deposited with the clerk of the state court, and paid $42,225.24 dividends accrued thereon.

Thereafter John Pelkes and Evelyn Treinies made application to the Supreme Court of tne United States for writ of certiorari and obtained an injunction pending the appeal restraining Katherine Mason from transferring any of the certificates of stock or disposing of the dividends. The application was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States on January 11, 1937. Pelkes v. Mason, 299 U.S. 615, 57 S.Ct. 319, 81 L.Ed. -. Katherine Mason and T. R. Mason are now in possession of 15.299 shares of stock and $42,225.24 dividends accrued thereon from August 4, 1934, to August 20, 1936. On December 14, 1934, and while the case was pending in the state district court of Idaho, Katherine Mason filed a petition in the matter of the estate of Amelia Pelkes in the superior court of the state of Washington which she attempted to dismiss after John Pelkes filed a petition in that court resulting in a decree entered May 31, 1935, wherein it was adjudicated that John Pelkes was the owner of 30,598 shares of the Sunshine Mining Company stock, that had formerly stood in his name on the records of that company. Subsequently John Pelkes presented the decree entered in the probate proceedings in the superior court of Washington as a defense to the action then pending against him in the state district court of Idaho, which with other defenses was considered and decided by the Supreme Court of Idaho. On August 12, 1936, and while the appeal was pending in the Supreme Court of Idaho, John Pelkes and Evelyn Treinies instituted suit against Masons, Harrisons, Hansons, and Keane and the Sunshine Mining Company, in the superior court of Spokane county, Wash., wherein they alleged that they were the owners of all of the 16,000 shares of stock, and that the state district court of Idaho had no jurisdiction over them and they were not bound by the decree entered by the state district court of Idaho, and prayed that the Sunshine Mining Company be compelled to recognize their ownership in the stock.

While that cause was pending and on October 16, 1936, John Pelkes died, and the Seattle First National Bank was appointed administrator of his estate. On January 11, 1937, an order was entered, without notice to the defendants, in the cause pending in the superior court' of Washington, appointing J. C. Cheney as temporary receiver to take into his possession, as receiver, the interest of John Pelkes in the canceled certificate held by Evelyn Treinies. After the appointment of Cheney as receiver, the Sunshine Mining Company gave notice that they would not recognize the ownership of Masons in the 16,000 shares during the pendency of the litigation.

The action pending in the superior court for Spokane county was transferred to the superior court of Yakima county, Wash., where the motions and demurrers of the Sunshine Mining Company, Harrisons, and Hansons were presented and taken under advisement by Judge Plawkins. A temporary restraining order was issued out of Judge Hawkins’ court restraining the Sunshine Mining Company from transferring the stock.

It is apparent from the proceedings in the two state courts that the two decrees purport to establish inconsistent rights of ownership- in the stock and dividends and therefore the fundamental inquiry of the present complicated litigation is: Under which of the decrees and acts of the parties, who are now entitled to have decreed [590]

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Related

Moen v. Minzel
313 P.2d 1079 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1957)
Boundary County v. Woldson
144 F.2d 17 (Ninth Circuit, 1944)
Boundary County v. Woldson
49 F. Supp. 600 (D. Idaho, 1943)
Treinies v. Sunshine Mining Co.
308 U.S. 66 (Supreme Court, 1940)
Treinies v. Sunshine Mining Co.
99 F.2d 651 (Ninth Circuit, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 F. Supp. 587, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1679, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sunshine-mining-co-v-treinies-idd-1937.