Tibbals v. Mica Mountain Mines

• Decision Date: 02 February 1949
• Docket Number: No. 3719.,3719.
• Citation: 172 F.2d 449
• Parties: TIBBALS et al. v. MICA MOUNTAIN MINES, Inc., et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

172 F.2d 449 (1949)

TIBBALS et al. v. MICA MOUNTAIN MINES, Inc., et al.

No. 3719.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

February 2, 1949.

John J. Spriggs, of Lander, Wyo, for appellants.

Perris S. Jensen, of Salt Lake City, Utah (H. S. Harnsberger, of Lander, Wyo., on the brief), for appellees.

Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, and BRATTON and MURRAH, Circuit Judges.

PHILLIPS, Chief Judge.

This is an action in ejectment brought by Anna M. Tibbals and Spriggs against Mica Mountain Mines, Inc., a corporation, and Clinger, Monson, and Egli, as trustees of such corporation, to recover possession of a group of patented mining claims, damages for withholding possession thereof, and for an accounting of ores and minerals removed from such mining claims.

Such mining claims have been involved in much litigation in the state courts of Wyoming. See Tibbals v. Keys, 40 Wyo. 524, 281 P. 190; Tibbals v. Graham, 50 Wyo. 277, 61 P.2d 279, 62 P.2d 285. From the opinions in those cases, these facts appear:

On July 28, 1900, Barney N. Tibbals¹ and John C. Spry entered into a written contract which recited that Spry had theretofore been the owner of the mining claims; that such claims had become the property of the Federal Gold Mining Company, a corporation, and that Spry, in working and developing such claims, had employed Tibbals, as manager, and agreed to pay him $50 per month and one-tenth of the net profits accruing from such mining claims. Subsequently thereto, and prior to March, 1904, a working option to buy the claims was given to Thomas Ewing. On March 1, 1904, Tibbals and Spry entered into a second contract by which Tibbals agreed to accept $17,500 in full and complete satisfaction of all his claims against Spry, to be paid from the purchase money received by Spry from the sale of the mining claims.

Thereafter, Spry died and Tibbals brought an action on the contract against Spry's executors seeking a decree establishing a lien against the mining claims to secure $17,500, with interest from the date of the contract and foreclosing the lien and ordering the sale of such mining claims to satisfy the amount due thereunder. In that action, the trial court decided against Tibbals. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Wyoming held that Keys became the trustee of an express trust to sell the mining claims and pay Tibbals from the proceeds of such sale, and that Tibbals was entitled to a decree establishing a lien against the mining claims to secure the claim of $17,500, with interest, and ordering the sale of the mining claims, if necessary, to satisfy Tibbals' claim, and reversed and remanded with instructions to enter judgment accordingly. See 281 P. 190.

Midwest Mines Corporation² acquired a lease on the mining claims, took possession thereof, and expended substantial sums of money thereon. Numerous persons became entitled to liens upon the mining claims for labor and materials. In a case pending in the district court for Fremont County, Wyoming, entitled J. J. Marrin v. Midwest Mines Corporation, numbered 4561, on November 3, 1930, Marshall Graham was appointed receiver of Midwest and as such receiver went into possession of the mining claims and certain mining machinery and fixtures thereon, and has at all times since that date been such receiver and in possession of such mining claims and other property.

An action was brought in the state court of Wyoming by the Federal Gold Mining Company against Tibbals, numbered 4623. An order was entered in that action making Graham, as receiver, and other persons, parties defendant. Later, the state court entered an order of dismissal as to Graham, as receiver, and the other persons made parties defendant.

Thereafter, a judgment was entered in number 4623, in favor of Tibbals, dismissing the petition of the Federal Gold Mining Company, declaring Tibbals to have a valid, prior and subsisting lien against the mining claims to secure $17,500, with interest, and ordering the sale of the property to satisfy the amount due under such lien. Pursuant to that judgment, a judicial sale was held on October 15, 1932.

Thereafter, Tibbals and Spriggs brought an action against Graham and others in ejectment, claiming to have acquired a fee title and the right to possession of the mining claims through such judicial sale of October 15, 1932.

Graham, as receiver, filed a cross-petition in which he set up that Midwest took possession of and operated the mining claims under a lease and expended approximately $70,000 thereon; that numerous persons...