United States Tungsten Mines Co. v. Laugharn

67 F.2d 226, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4416
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 16, 1933
DocketNo. 7020
StatusPublished

This text of 67 F.2d 226 (United States Tungsten Mines Co. v. Laugharn) 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
United States Tungsten Mines Co. v. Laugharn, 67 F.2d 226, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4416 (9th Cir. 1933).

Opinion

SAWTELLE, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal by the United States Tungsten Mines Company, Limited, from an order of the District Court affirming an order of the referee in bankruptcy in respect to the disposition of certain funds held in escrow.

The pertinent facts are as follows: Watterson Bros., Inc., was adjudicated a bankrupt and Jess Hession was elected trastee. Later, Hession resigned and appellee Hubert P. Laugham was chosen as his successor. Tungsten Products Company, a corporation, hereafter referred to as Tungsten Company, is also a bankrupt, and appellee Wm. H. Moore, Jr., is its duly qualified trustee. The first-named bankrupt elaims to be the owner of a certain reduction and concentration mill, machinery, etc., and three certain unpatented mining claims, all located in Inyo county, Cal. The Tungsten Company also claims to be the owner of certain unpatented mining claims located in the same county, known as the Blizzard group of mines.

December 15, 1930, one Cecil S. Coan, as purchaser, entered into a written contract with said Hession, as trastee of the estate of Watterson Brothers, bankrupt, as seller, by the terms of which contract the latter agreed to sell to the former the following described property: “* * * That certain reduction and concentration mill erected for the reduction and concentration of minerals, together with buildings, structures, machinery, mill equipment, including water and water rights, reservoirs, pipe lines, camp buildings, lodging house, mess house, stables, warehouses, saw mill and other structures used in connection with or for the benefit of the operations of said null, which said property is located upon those certain recorded mining claims designated as Annex Claim, Pine Creek Claim No. 1 and Pine Creek Claim No. 2, which are located approximately 7% miles West from the Northeast comer of Section 32, Township 6 South, Range 31 East, 22% miles West from Bishop, Inyo County, California ; and * * * also * * * all or such part of said mining elaims upon which the said mill, buildings, pipe lines, reservoirs and other structures and appurtenances, including all property hereinabove mentioned, are located”- — -upon the following terms: “ * * * $25,000.00 in installments as follows : The sum of $5,000.00 as initial payment upon the said purchase price (of which $500.-00 has already been deposited); the further sum of $10,000l.00 on or before one year from the date of this agreement; and the further and final sum of $10,000.00 on or before two years from the date of this agreement.”

The contract provides as follows:

“(b) The parties hereto shall open an escrow with the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, Seventh & Olive Street Branch, in the City, of Los Angeles, State of California, in which first party shall, upon the execution of this agreement, deposit his deed as Trustee in Bankruptcy of the estate of Watterson Bros., Inc., a corporation, duly authorized by order of the Referee herein, conveying to second party the property of the Bankrupt estate, consisting of * * * [the identical property described above].

“Second party shall, upon the execution of this agreement of sale, deposit in said escrow the sum of $4500.09 as the balance of the initial payment upon the purchase price of said property, as provided in subdivision (a) of this paragraph, with instructions that the said sum of $4500, together with the $500 already deposited with the attorney for first party, shall be paid to first party when there shall have been deposited in said escrow a certificate of title of the Inyo County Abstract Company, showing title in said first party to said properties, including the real estate hereinabove referred to upon which said property, together with the buildings, structures, equip[228]*228ment, machinery and other appurtenances are situated, free and clear of any and all encumbrances, liens, claims, assessments, taxes or other obligations, except such claims or encumbrances as second party may waive by mitten waiver deposited in said escrow. * * *

“Said escrow shall be for a temporary period of ninety days from the date of this agreement of sale, with the right of second party to extend said period of escrow, if he may so desire, in order to permit the first party to perfect the title to said properties; and, when title is perfected, the escrow shall be permanent, and at the expense of second party. * * *

“(e) It is understood by the parties hereto that all tailings and other ore or metals upon the surface of said property which is the subject of this agreement of sale, belonging to the Tungsten Products Company, a corporation, bankrupt, and the Trustee in Bankruptcy of said bankrupt estate, a lease and purchase of which, together with the mining claims upon which the mines from which said tailings and other ore or metals were taken, is located, has been made contemporaneous with this agreement. Should for any reason the said Watterson Bros., Inc., Bankrupt, have any claim upon or any interest whatsoever in or to said tailings, other ore or minerals upon or within said properties, it is the intention of the parties hereto that the first party will by his conveyance, to be deposited in said escrow, include therein all right and interest of the said bankrupt estate therein and there-to. * * *

“(h) It is further understood and agreed that the bankrupt corporation, Tungsten Products Company, has heretofore duly and regularly conveyed to Watterson Bros., Inc., a corporation, the mill and equipment, including all the property hereinabove set forth as the subject of this agreement of sale, and including the mill site upon which the mill, buildings and structures are located, which said conveyance includes all or such part of the Annex claim, Pine Creek No. 1 claim and Pine Creek No. 2 claim on which is located said mill, store house, buildings and other structures and equipment, including water supply, water rights, pipe lines and all machinery, and facilities used in connection with said mill and milling operations, and that proper transfers were made from the Tungsten Products Company or its predecessor in interest to Watterson Bros., Inc. Should such transfers not be of record or should for any other reason such transfers not have been made or have been lost or destroyed or should for any other reason Tungsten Products Company have secured, by performing assessment work or by any other means or from any other sources, any right, title or interest in or lien upon said mill site and said real estate referred to, including camp site, reservoir site, water rights or other equipment or machinery or facilities included in this agreement of sale, then as an essential part of this agreement to be performed by first party before any further payments upon the purchase price of said property shall be due and payable, full and proper conveyances will be secured from the Tungsten Products Company, its Trustee in Bankruptcy, or from its predecessor in interest, so as to perfect in said Watterson Bros., Inc., and in the Trustee in Bankruptcy thereof, the title to said real estate upon which said mill, equipment, buildings, structures, water rights and machinery and facilities are situated.

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Bluebook (online)
67 F.2d 226, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4416, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-tungsten-mines-co-v-laugharn-ca9-1933.