Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/274/15.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 19:09:30+00:00

Document:
[274 U.S. 15, 16] Messrs. James M. Hodgson and Floyd E. Pendell, both of Denver, Colo., for appellant.
Appellant seeks to establish his right to a one-eighth interest in an oil and gas lease upon 160 acres of land in Wyoming granted August 21, 1920, by the United States to appellee Federal Oil & Development Company under section 18, Act of Congress approved February 25, 1920, c. 85, 41 Stat. 437, 443 (Comp. St. 4640 1/4 i). The lease was afterwards assigned to the Mountain & Gulf Oil Company upon conditions not here important.
That January 11, 1887, George McManus and seven associates located a placer mining claim-the O'Glase-and thereafter perfected the same. McManus died in 1901. His one-eighth interest descended to his heirs and has never been forfeited, abandoned, or lost. These heirs lived beyond Wyoming and were unaware of their interest in the claim for 20 years. The land is within the district withdrawn from entry by executive order of September 27, 1909. The Federal Oil & Development Company, having become part owner of the claim, took possession, and thereafter, asserting ownership to the whole, surrendered the same and procured the existing lease in its own name under the Act of 1920. The company became a cotenant with the McManus heirs, and consequently the lease ob- [274 U.S. 15, 17] tained by it inured to their benefit. Appellant purchased their interest February 11, 1922, and may now impress a trust upon the lease.
'Sec. 32. That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to prescribe necessary and proper rules and regulations and to do any and all things necessary to carry out and accomplish the purposes of this act. ...' Comp. St. 4640 1/4 i, 4640 1/4 pp.
He also maintains that out of the alleged cotenancy there arose a relation of trust and confidence between the Oil & Development Company and the McManus heirs, and therefore it cannot deny that the lease was procured [274 U.S. 15, 19] for the benefit of them as well as for itself, according to their respective interests.
In order to support the view that in equity and good conscience the Oil & Development Company acted for the McManus heirs in securing the existing lease, it would be necessary to allege definite facts (not mere conclusions) sufficient to show some fiduciary relationship between them. This has not been done, unless such a relationship necessarily arose because of cotenancy. The rule as commonly stated forbids a cotenant from acquiring and asserting an adverse title against his companions because of the mutual trust and confidence supposed to exist; but the rule does not go beyond the reason which supports it. If the interests of the cotenants accrue at different times, under different instruments, and neither has superior means of information respecting the state [274 U.S. 15, 20] of the title, then either, unless he employs his cotenancy to secure an advantage, may acquire and assert a superior outstanding title, especially where there is no joint possession. This exception to the general rule is recognized in Turner v. Sawyer, 150 U.S. 578, 586 , 14 S. Ct. 192; Elder v. McClaskey (C. C. A.) 70 F. 529, 546; Freeman on Cotenancy and Partition, 155; Shelby v. Rhodes, 105 Miss. 255, 267, 62 So. 232, Ann. Cas. 1916D, 1306; Sands v. Davis, 40 Mich. 14, 18; Joyce v. Dyer, 189 Mass. 64, 67, 75 N. E. 81, 109 Am. St. Rep. 603; Steele v. Steele, 220 Ill. 318, 323, 77 N. E. 232. We know of no opinion by the courts of Wyoming to the contrary.
We need not discuss laches as an equitable defense, the effect of the 10-year limitation prescribed by the Wyoming statute, or other points relied on by the appellees. In the circumstances, nothing short of distinct allegations of all the facts necessary to support appellant's [274 U.S. 15, 21] claim for relief would suffice, and they are not to be found in the bill.

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