Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States

South Spring Hill Gold Mining Co. v. Amador Medean Gold Mining Co.

S. Spring Hill Gold Mining Co. v. Amador Medean Gold Mining Co., 145 U.S. 300 (1892)

Type
Opinion
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction
Federal
Date
1892-05-16
Topic
general

How later courts describe this case

  • concluding that the court could not adjudicate a matter between two corporations which, since the lower court ruling, had come under the control of the same persons
  • dismissing appeal after defendant and plaintiff corporations merged to become one entity
  • ‘We cannot ... consent to determine a controversy in which the plaintiff has become the dominus litis on both sides.”
  • when plaintiff mining company owned defendant, even if not the economic beneficiary of the suit, “the litigation has ceased to be between adverse parties, and the case therefore falls within the rule applied where the controversy is not a real one”

Citator

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Cited by
95 opinions

Headnotes

  1. Civil Procedure — Mootness A federal appellate court will not decide a controversy in which the plaintiff in error has become the master of the litigation on both sides, because the litigation has ceased to be between adverse parties and the case falls within the rule applied where the controversy is not a real one. 145 U.S. at 301–302
  2. Civil Procedure — Collusive or Non-Adversarial Litigation A suit is not a genuine controversy, and will not be adjudicated on the merits, where the same persons have come to control both corporate parties, even if the case is not shown to have been gotten up by collusion, since the requisite adversity of interest is absent. 145 U.S. at 302
  3. Civil Procedure — Disposition on Appeal Where the parties have ceased to be adverse, the appellate court may, without considering or passing upon the merits in any respect, reverse the judgment below and remand the case for further proceedings in conformity to law, so that minority stockholders are not deprived of an adjudication in their favor while the questions involved may yet be submitted to the proper tribunal. 145 U.S. at 302
SOUTH SPRING HILL G. MIN. v. AMADOR MEDEAN G. MIN.,145 U.S. 300(1892)
12 S.Ct. 921
SOUTH SPRING HILL GOLD MINING COMPANYv. AMADOR MEDEAN GOLD MINING
COMPANY
ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT
OF CALIFORNIA.
No. 338.
Submitted April 27, 1892.
Decided May 16, 1892.
The court, being informed that the control of both the corporations, parties to this suit, had come into the hands of the same persons, but that there was a minority of stockholders in the Amador Medean Gold Mining Company who retained the interest that they had, at the time the decision was rendered — that the two corporations were still in existence and organized — and that the present managers and owners of the properties were anxious that the question should be decided, in order that the minority of the stockholders might receive whatever, by the finding of the court, would be due to them — reverses the judgment and remands the case for further proceedings in conformity to law, without considering or passing upon the merits of the case in any respect.
THE case is stated in the opinion.
Mr. George S. Boutwellfor plaintiff in error.

No appearance for defendant in error.Page 301
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER delivered the opinion of the court.
This was an action brought by the Amador Medean Gold Mining Company against the South Spring Hill Gold Mining Company in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of California, where it was tried on an agreed statement of facts, and a judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff, to review which this writ of error was prosecuted. The opinion of Judge Sawyer, holding the Circuit Court, will be found reported in 36 F. 668.

When the case came on for argument in this court the attorney for plaintiff in error very properly called our attention to the fact that, since the decision in the Circuit Court, "the control of both the corporations, parties to this suit, had come into the hands of the same persons, but that there was a minority of stockholders in the Amador Medean Gold Mining Company who retained the interest that they had at the time the decision was rendered;" "that the two corporations were still in existence and organized, and that the present managers and owners of the properties were anxious that the question should be decided, in order that the minority of the stockholders might receive whatever, by the finding of the court, would be due to them." No appearance has been entered for defendant in error, but a copy of the opening and closing briefs, filed on its behalf in the Circuit Court, has been printed and filed here by plaintiff in error. We cannot, however, consent to determine a controversy in which the plaintiff in error has become thedominus litison both sides. We assume that this is not an agreed case gotten up by collusion; but the litigation has ceased to be between adverse parties, and the case therefore falls within the rule applied where the controversy is not a real one.Wood-paper Companyv.Heft, 8 Wall. 333;Clevelandv.Chamberlain, 1 Black, 419;Lordv.Veazie, 8 How. 251;Washington Market Co. v.District of Columbia,137 U.S. 62.

If the writ of error be dismissed the judgment will remain undisturbed, and the plaintiff in error might be cut off fromPage 302submitting the questions involved to the determination of the appellate tribunal; while if the judgment be reversed the minority of the stockholders of defendant in error would be deprived of the benefit of an adjudication in its favor. But although the latter might be thereby subjected to the delay and expense of further litigation, they would still be free to vindicate whatever rights they are entitled to.Without considering or passing upon the merits of the case inany respect, we deem it most consonant to justice to reverse thejudgment and remand the case for further proceedings inconformity to law, and it is so ordered.