Mohave County miner., 1905-03-04
The Superior Case.


 perior mines, brought by the Lake Su. perior & Arizona Mining company against Fred s. Pheby, terminated Saturday evening in judgment in fa- vor of the plaintiff company. Briefly stated the history of the case was simply this: About four years ago Geo. Lobb, of Silver King, and pros pector from Tempe located the old Gem mine, situated on Queen creek this county, each of the locators talk. ing one half interest in the claim. At the time Mir. Lobb was in the ploy of the Silver King company in the ca pacity of watchman. Fred s. Pheby's father was large stockholder in the Silver King company and for some time prior to the em oloyment of Lodd as watchman Fred S Pheby had been in charge of the Silver King mine and during that period Ljbb and he had become warm personal friends. Sub sequently, when Lobb obtained a half interest in the old Gem, by relocation, he agreed with MT. Pheby that if the latter would 'put up" each year for one-fourth of the cost of the annual assessment work on the claim, he (Lobb) would hold in trust one fourth interest in the property for Pheby, or in other words, aud in ac cordance with Mr. Lobb's testimony, Lobb would, in Case of sale, give MT. Pheby one half of the amount received by Lobb. In the meantime the loca ton notice, showing Lobb aud Woolf to be the owners of the claim, was placed of record iu due form, and the annual assessme ut work was performed each year by Messrs. Lobb aud Woolf, Mr. Pheby failing each year to con tribute his proportion of tn, cost of such W ,rk. \ l,tLle uver two years ago Messrs. Lobb and Woolf placed the property with the Superior company under working bond and this company proceeded to expend about 6O,O00S in development work on the property and proved it to be first class mine. They then took the property over hay ing in the meantime thoroughly searched the records and found the title of Lobb and Woolf to be clear. When they made the fnal payment L,bb, in compliance with his agree ment with Pheby, sent the latter a check for one half of the amount he had received for his interest in the old Gem, less the amount due from Pheby for assessment work on the claim But as the property had now become valuable because of the expensive and extensive develop ment work performed on it by the Superior company in good faith under their bond, Mr. Pheby re- fused to accept Mir. Lobb's division of the purcb SC money and brought suit against the company for fourth in. terest in not only the old Gem, now known as the Golden Eagle, but also for an interest in the Golden Eagle Extension, located by Mir. Lobb year after he located the old Gem. This suit was not pushed, and the Superior company, desiring to settle the matter, brought suit for quiet title, which was decided in favor of the com pany in the district court at Florence Sat urday.
 s. E. Hazard, of Tucson, appeared for the plaintiffs and Chas. Wheeler, of San Francisco, and G. c. Earl, of Oakland, appeared for the defendant. It would be difficult to find three more profound lawyers on this coast, hence not legal point w.s overlooked on either side.
 The decision in this case gives gen. eral satisfaction here, for two very good reasons. First, because it is felt that if record title can be attacked and set aside in favor of "secret equity" no mans property Ia safe and that in the face of such conditions nei her individual or corporate capital could be induced to invest in this sec. tion. Second, because contrary de. cision would have tied up the Superior company for an indefinite period to the serious detriment of the mining and business interests of this county.
 The Superior company is now per. fecting plans that mean the expendi. ture of probably 1,OJO,OOOS in this