Miller v. Saccares

SHINN, J., pro tem. Plaintiff, a builder, and defendant, a jeweler, residing at Long Beach, decided to engage in a mining enterprise. Their capital was small, but greater than their knowledge and their experience in such matters. Plaintiff procured an option to purchase eleven lode mining locations in Arizona for the sum of $1500. Plaintiff, defendant and one E. Kadletz, the seller, visited certain claims from which defendant took a sample of what appeared to be ore. He thereupon paid $600 on the purchase price and, with plaintiff as co-maker, gave a note for the sum of $900, payable at the rate of $225 per month, and took a deed to the property to himself, and, apparently in exchange therefor, a later deed to himself and plaintiff as grantees. Having acquired the property, the parties decided that they should reduce their agreement to writing. They disagreed in the choice of a lawyer, each preferring one of his own selection, and they compromised the matter by choosing a notary public instead, who, with their assistance, drafted an agreement which set forth, after a fashion, their respective interests in the venture. Having acquired the claims they then decided to seek the advice of a mining man concerning their value and their development, and, with such an adviser, they made another trip to Arizona. Upon this occasion they took to the property a Mr. Bradley of Ajo, a miner who had done assessment work on the claims, and by him they were informed that the property which they had inspected on their first trip (with the [74]exception of two claims) was not the property which they had purchased. This matter they appear to have treated lightly. Their mining adviser went into a surface working, which was thought to expose an ore body on one of the claims and came forth with a pailful of ore, which was all there was in sight. They learned from him, in the expressive parlance of miners, that the small quantity of ore which lay in a pocket had “pinched out”. Upon their return home defendant expressed some feeling of discouragement at the outlook, but at plaintiff’s request another trip was made to the property with their mining friend and samples were taken from a shaft some seventy feet in depth. These, unfortunately, when assayed, showed values considerably below the cost of extraction and treatment. In the meantime defendant had paid the note of $900 and had purchased and taken title to some miscellaneous mining equipment upon which he. paid $2,000, plaintiff failing and refusing to pay any part of these sums. By this time the parties had learned that the cost of equipment for the commencement of operations on the property would amount to approximately $6,000, which was more money than they had, and they learned also, that as far as could be foretold, the property could be operated only at a loss.