80 P. 345 | Ariz. | 1905
The appellants, Mrs. P. L. Butterfield and Charles Dougherty, filed their complaint in the district court of Santa Cruz County, alleging, in substance, the following facts: That the plaintiffs are residents of the state of Colorado; that the defendant the Nogales Copper Company is a corporation organized under the laws of Arizona; that the defendant the Cerro Prieto Mining Company is a corporation organized under the laws of the republic of Mexico; that the defendants J. R. Grant, W. P. Chenoweth, H. K. Chenoweth, and R. N. McPherson are residents of Arizona; and that the defendant Manuel M. Maldonado is a resident of the republic of Mexico; that in May, 1898, plaintiffs and the defendant Maldonado discovered and denounced under the Mexican laws two mining claims — one called the “Margarita,” consisting of five mining pertenencias, and one called the “Enterprise,” consisting of fifteen mining pertenencias — situated in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Cucurpe, district of Magdalena, state of Sonora, republic of Mexico; that said claims were properly surveyed, staked off, and monumented as required by the Mexican laws; that by agreement between plaintiffs and said Maldonado the former paid all the costs of location and survey of said claims and the taxes and all other fees and charges required by the rules, regulations, and laws of the republic of Mexico pertaining to such locations, and that they thereby became, under said agreement, the owners of an undivided three-fourths interest in the said claims, and were recognized by said Maldonado thereafter as the owners of said undivided three-fourths interest; that on the fifteenth day of October, 1899, plaintiffs entered into a written agreement with the defendant W. P. Chenoweth, who then and there acted for himself and for his co-defendants H. K. Chenoweth, J. R. Grant, and R. N. McPherson, under the terms of which agreement the plaintiffs agreed to sell to said defendants an undivided two-thirds interest in said mining claims in consideration of the payment of five hundred dollars cash, and the further sum of fourteen thousand five hundred dollars within one year from the date of said agreement. The said purchasers agreeing to pay all taxes due the Mexican government on behalf of said claims during the life of the
The demurrer presented two questions: 1. Did the court have jurisdiction to grant any relief to plaintiffs notwithstanding the fact that the subject-matter of this relief is property situated in Mexico ! 2. If the court had jurisdiction, did the facts stated in the complaint entitle the plaintiffs to any such relief!
It is a settled doctrine that a court of equity, having acquired jurisdiction over the person of the defendant, has. jurisdiction to enter any decree which may concern or .affect lands situated in a foreign state to the same extent and as fully as though these were situated within the state where the court has its situs. “"Where the subject-matter is situated within another state or country, but the parties are within the jurisdiction of the court, any suit may be maintained and remedy granted which directly affect and operate upon the person of the defendant, and not upon the subject-matter, although the subject-matter is referred to in the decree, and the defendant is ordered to do or to refrain from certain acts toward it, and is thus ultimately but indirectly affected by the relief granted. As examples of this rule, suits for specific performance of contracts, for the enforcement of express or implied trusts, for relief on the ground of fraud, actual or constructive, for the final accounting and settlement of a partnership, and the like, may be brought in any state where jursdiction of defendant’s person is obtained, although the land or other subject-matter is situated in another state, or even in a foreign country.” Pomeroy’s Equity
The judgment will he reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings in consonance with this opinion.