84 F. 851 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Washington | 1898
The object of this suit, as set forth in the amended bill of complaint, appears to be to establish a co-partnership between the plaintiffs and the defendants, and joint ownership of certain mining claims in the Klondike region, which the defendant Mallory is alleged to have acquired, and to require the said defendant to account for gold dust and nuggets which it is alleged he has taken from said mining claims, and for an injunction to prevent the sale and disposal of said property, and to compel the defendant Mallory to execute conveyances to the plaintiffs of their respective interests. The complainants plead a written contract, and aver that pursuant to said contract they made advances of money to the defendant Mallory, to be used and expended by him in prospecting for, acquiring, and working mining property, and that while said contract was in force, and with the money so advanced, said defendant did go on a prospecting expedition into the Methow and' Slate Creek districts, in this state, and went to the Klondike country, and there acquired valuable mining claims, and that he now denies the partnership, and denies that the complainants have, or are entitled to claim, any interest in said mining property. The alleged contract has not been exhibited, and the complainants aver that it has been lost or mislaid, so that they are unable to produce it. In their amended bill of complaint they set forth that, by the terms and provisions of said contract, they (the said complainants) and the defendants became mining partners, and that it was thereby agreed that the defendant Mallory should proceed to that part of the state of Washington called the “Methow Mining District,” and to such other places as he might deem advisable, and prospect for, discover, locate, or otherwise acquire, work, develop, and mine, mines, mining claims, water rights, mill sites, and other property, for the use and benefit of the complainants and the defendants, in the proportions
It is obvious that if the complainants have any right in mining claims acquired by Mallory, situated in the Klondike country, such rights must he founded upon the contract, or result as a legal consequence from the use and expenditure of the money furnished by complainants, and used in discovering, locating, or otherwise ae-