Chung Kee v. Davidson

Citations

• 102 Cal. 188
• 36 P. 519
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 616

Syllabus

<p>Mining Partnership—Ownership of Mine—Deed as Security—Application of Profits.—No mining partnership or co-ownership exists between the owners of a mine and the holders of a deed from them, intended as security for indebtedness, where the holders of the deed are not in possession, and are interested in the work only as creditors, although it is agreed between them and the owner of the mine that all gold produced as the result of mining operations is to be received and retained by the creditors, and that the profits are to be applied toward payment of the indebtedness secured by the deed.</p> <p>Id.—Payment of Expenses for Work—Trust—Money Had and Received.—Under a contract providing that the creditors secured by deed should receive the whole of each cleanup of the mine, and that it should he applied to the defraying of the expenses of running and working the mine, and to the payment of the indebtedness secured by the deed, the creditors so secured cannot apply the whole of the proceeds to the payment of the indebtedness to them; and although they are not personally responsible for aiyr of the expenses further than the proceeds may be sufficient to pay them, yet, to the extent required to pay the expenses, the)' are trustees of the laborers employed to work the mines, and are liable to an action by them for money had and received for their use.</p> <p>Id.—Disbursing Agency—Knowledge of Employment—Promise.—The creditors under such contract became the disbursing agents of the miners so far as required to defray the expenses of producing the gold, and it was not necessary that they should have known of the employment of the laborers, or should have made any express promise to pay them.</p> <p>Id.—Money Had and Received—Privity—Implied Promise.—Whenever one man has in his hands the money of another which he ought to pay over, he is liable to an action for money had and received, although he has never seen or heard of the party who has the right; and when the fact is pr