Donohoe v. Trinity Consolidated Gold & Silver Mining Co.

Citations

• 113 Cal. 119
• 45 P. 259
• 1896 Cal. LEXIS 753

Syllabus

<p>Mining Claim—Lien of Laborer—Foreclosure—Evidence—Foreign Corporation—Acts and Declaration of Managing Agent—Prima Facie Proof—Counterproof—Finding of Agency—Sufficiency of Evidence.—In an action to foreclose the lien of a laborer upon a mining claim, when the proof showed that the laborer was employed by a foreman appointed by one who was acting as superintendent of the mine, which was the property of a foreign corporation, although the evidence failed to show direct authority from the corporation to the person acting as superintendent, or a direct ratification by it of his acts, and although in general an agency cannot be established by the declarations and acts of the alleged agent, yet, under the provisions of section 1183 of the Code of Civil Procedure, evidence of the open and continued acts and declarations of any person having charge of the property upon which the labor was done, is competent prima facia to warrant his being held to be the agent of the owner for the purpose of enforcing a lien upon the property, though the owner might overthrow this by proof of his want of knowledge and nonemployment of the alleged agent, coupled with a showing that he had exercised ordinary care in the premises; but, in the absence of such counter-proof, the prima facie evidence is sufficient to support a finding of agency.</p> <p>Id.—Default of Mining Company—Appeal by Subsequent Lienholder —Identical Claim of Agency.—Where the mining company made default in the action to foreclose the lien of the laborer upon the mine, and the appeal from the judgment in favor of the plaintiff is prosecuted by a subsequent lienholder, whose claim is also founded upon the sufficiency of proof of the identical agency of the managing agent of the mine, which against the plaintiff it is disputing and seeking to overthrow, yet without producing counter-proof to plaintiff’s evidence of the conduct and declarations of the managing agent, the findings of the court in favor of such agency canno