Compo v. Jackson Iron Co.
| Decision Date | 27 June 1882 |
| Citation | 49 Mich. 39,12 N.W. 901 |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
| Parties | COMPO v. JACKSON IRON CO. |
A written agreement made by a joint-stock mining company whereby the said company recognizes the right of an Indian to a fractional interest in the mining location worked by it and containing a definite description of the land and of the interest of said Indian, and the consideration on which it rested, which was a valuable one, is a valid agreement and declaration of trust for the title to which it referred.
Where such location was held and worked under a lease from the war department, including a right of pre-emption, and a subsequent act of congress recognized the authority of the war department by providing for a transfer of its management and control of such lands to the treasury department, and in the same act provided for the survey and sale of the land giving occupants under the war department leases a pre-emption, to be exercised during the existence of the lease, on condition that the entire tract should be purchased, the purchase of the land under this act depended on the leasehold rights, and was in pursuance of the pre-emption right thereby granted, and the act of congress ratified the lease, whether originally valid or not.
Such agreement gave him an equitable title to the undivided interest described, which the legal owners held in trust for him; and this title, after his death, passed to his daughter the plaintiff in this suit, who could transfer or enforce it as an interest in fee in the land purchased by the company.
Where such title in plaintiff has never been disputed long enough to bar her rights, lapse of time alone will not operate as a disseizin, either in law or in equity; and where the bill does not indicate any considerable delay since the company gave up negotiating with her to settle with her if she had rights, and subsequently denied her rights, there is enough to call upon defendant to put in a defence and leave the merits to be tried on the facts, and a demurrer to the bill was improperly sustained.
Appeal from Marquette.
M.H. Maynard and C.I. Walker, for defendant.
Compo as assignee of Charlotte Kobogum, an Indian woman, daughter and heir of Marji Gezick, a deceased Indian, brought a bill to obtain relief under the following circumstances: Defendant is the corporate successor and under the statute subject to the liabilities of a former company originally incorporated in 1848 as the Jackson Mining Company, and afterwards changed to the Jackson Iron Company. That corporation was organized chiefly by, and obtained the mining property of, a previous unincorporated joint-stock company acting through several trustees, and known as the Jackson Mining Company. This suit is brought to secure the rights alleged to have been contracted by the original association to be given to Marji Gezick, but never formally conveyed or otherwise assured to him or to the daughter, who succeeds him. The association was made for the purpose of mining on Lake Superior. Marji Gezick discovered and made known to them the iron mine in Marquette county, which they have always worked as their mining property, and they had agreed to pay him for his services. The association having procured a war department permit, and in pursuance thereof having taken out a lease of the mining location which contained a section of land thereupon gave to Marji Gezick a written agreement dated May 30, 1846, signed by the president and secretary, which declared that in consideration of his services in hunting ores of location 593 he was entitled to 12 undivided thirty-one hundredths parts of the interest of the Jackson Mining Company in said location 593. This agreement was ratified and confirmed on the books of the company, which it is averred passed to defendant. It...
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