Integrity Min. & Mill. Co. v. Moon

• Decision Date: 02 March 1908
• Citation: 109 S.W. 1057,130 Mo. App. 627
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Parties: INTEGRITY MIN. & MILL. CO. v. MOON et al.

109 S.W. 1057

130 Mo. App. 627

INTEGRITY MIN. & MILL. CO. v. MOON et al.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

March 2, 1908.

Rehearing Denied May 4, 1908.

1. JUDGMENT — CONCLUSIVENESS — CASE DISMISSED.

A justice of the peace's judgment does not conclude subsequent litigation of the matters involved where plaintiff dismissed the case after appeal to the circuit court.

2. INJUNCTION—MINES AND MINERALS—TRESPASS UPON LICENSEE'S POSSESSION.

Though a mining licensee cannot maintain an action for unlawful detainer, he may restrain a trespass upon his possession.

3. CORPORATIONS — OFFICERS — AUTHORITY — STATUTE CONSTRUED.

Rev. St. 1899, § 1320 (Ann. St. 1906, p. 1068), providing that the property and business of a corporation shall be controlled by a board of directors, contemplates that the directors shall appoint officers and agents to control the business affairs of the corporation, and that the acts of such officers and agents while acting within the scope of their authority shall be taken as the act of the corporation itself.

4. SAME—PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER —AUTHORITY.

Under Rev. St. 1899, § 1320 (Ann. St. 1906, p. 1068), providing that the property and business of a corporation shall be controlled by a board of directors, a sale or transfer of a corporation's property is not valid unless authorized by the directors, and hence the president and general manager of a mining corporation could not, without authority from the directors, grant a valid permit to others to mine on the corporation's lease, though he had general charge of the corporation's property and could perform all acts necessary to its keeping and preservation.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jasper County; Hugh Dabbs, Judge.

Suit by the Integrity Mining & Milling Company against R. S. Moon and others. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

H. W. Currey and Prichett & Prichett, for appellants. W. R. Robertson, for respondent.

BROADDUS, P. J.

This is a suit by injunction. The agreed facts are as follows: A corporation known as the "Big Stick Mining Company" held an unrecorded mining lease on a certain tract of land in Jasper county. On the 12th day of November, 1906, this company, in writing, gave to the Federal Mining Company the right to prospect and mine for lead and zinc under or on the lands in said lease for and during the time from that date until the 17th day of September, 1916, subject to compliance by the latter with certain provisions and requirements—21 in number—one of which provides that no part of said leased premises shall be sublet or any interest therein assigned without the written consent of the first-named party. No. 4 provides that "No interest in said lots or the ores therein shall be acquired, held or claimed, or in any wise affected by virtue of this contract or by virtue of mining or working therein under or by virtue hereof. * * *" Nos. 7, 8, and 9 provide that the Big Stick Company will pay to the Federal Mining Company "as full compensation for all labor performed in prospecting and mining on said lots or tracts of land as follows: For lead ore properly cleaned, the cash market price thereof, less seventeen and one-half per centum. For zinc ore properly cleaned the cash market value thereof, less seventeen and one-half per centum." The Federal Mining Company having first obtained the written consent of the Big Stick Mining Company, on the 21st of December, 1906, assigned to the plaintiff all its right, title, and interest in said lease. On the 23d day of March, 1907, J. E. Myers as president of the plaintiff issued two permits for mining on said lease. One to S. S. Moon to mine on lots 29 and 30, and the other to Sam Moon and John H. Ragland also to mine on said lots. The permit restricted the right of said parties to mine the upper run of ore which had been located at from 90 to 110 feet below the surface of the earth.

The petition, after alleging the facts stated recites: "That on or about March 23, 1907, the defendants R. S. Moon and Walter Ragland commenced negotiations with one J. E. Myers, the then president of plaintiff corporation, for a permit to work what they designated as the upper run of ore in said land at between the depth of 90 and 110 feet, * * * and proposing to be governed by the terms and conditions named in said contract with the said landowner of lessee, and to pay a royalty on all ores of twenty-five per cent.; that though said negotiation did not terminate in any permit being given or granted to the said defendants or either of them, or in their acquiring any right to prospect for or mine ores in said land or in any way to interfere with the plaintiff's rights thereon," the defendants have gone upon the land, "and have begun sinking or threatening to sink a shaft thereon for the avowed purpose of mining therefrom" the ores. The other defendants named are alleged to be aiding and abetting those already named in their purposes. The defendants in their answer set up as a defense the permit mentioned given by J. C. Myers, the president of the plaintiff; and, further, they went upon the...