Kemp et al. vs. Hull Copper Co., 1906-1918 DB 542 Finding Aid Sharlot Hall Museum Archives Description The Papers of Kemp et al. vs. Hull Copper Company is a collection of legal papers of a landmark lawsuit between three major copper companies located in Jerome, Arizona, 1906-1918. The lawsuit involved 4400 minority stockholders of Hull Copper Company, backed by the United Verde Extension Mine in a suit against the majority stockholder of Hull Copper Company, Charles Clark of the adjacent United Verde Copper Company. Acquisition This collection was discovered in the backlog without an accession document. It is unknown how long the museum has held this material. However the original nature of the legal documents can lead one to deduce that it may have been acquired at the same time as the LeRoy Anderson Collection. Anderson and his associates were lead council for Charles Clark and United Verde Copper Mine. Access There are no restrictions to this collection. Processing Ryan Flahive processed the collection in the spring of 2007. Related Collections LeRoy Anderson Collection: 1900-1923, DB 55-56, 56a; DB 233-248D Organization The collection is arranged in five series: Series I Complaints Series II Affidavits Series III Depositions Series IV Receivership Series V Ephemera/Assorted
Scope and Content The papers of Kemp et al. vs. Hull Copper Company consist 1 cu ft. of complaints, affidavits, depositions, maps, posters, correspondence, contracts, printed matter, and assorted legal documents pertaining to the legal case against Charles Clark, the majority owner of the Hull Copper Company and the Owner of United Verde Copper Company, 1906-1918. An article ran in the Prescott Journal Miner on Aug 27, 1918 that best described the main elements of the case: The action was commenced in the Superior court here last winter by William Kemp, a Boston businessman, who is representing certain minority stockholders in the copper company which was organized may years ago by the late George W. Hull. It is the contention of Mr. Kemp that Charles Clark, of the United Verde Copper Company at Jerome had acquired a controlling interest in the Hull Company through the purchase of a large block of stock which had been sold to him by Mr. Hull, said shares having come into possession of Hull in an illegal and fraudulent manner. Therefore, allege the plaintiffs in the present action, the transfer of the stock to Mr. Clark should be cancelled by court order and the shares revert to the company treasury The plaintiffs allege that the Clark interests acquired the control of the Hull company for the express purpose of merging this property with the United Verde workings there are many ramifications of the Kemp-Hull case which do not appear on the surface, and that as a matter of fact, the action is merely a bit of camouflage in the fight which is generally supposed to be brewing between the Clark-United Verde interests and the United Verde Extension- Douglas organization and that regardless of which way the court rules in the present case the decision will be merely the forerunner for a larger and more hotly contested court battle between n the two big red metal firms of Yavapai County. The outcome of the case was described August 31, 1918 in the Prescott Journal Miner: The suit of William Kemp et al vs. the Hull Copper Company was settled in the Yavapai County Superior court yesterday, a compromise having been effected whereby Clark is to return to the Hull treasury a block of 2,500,000 shares of the company s stock for cancellation, and is to have his title quieted to the other shares in his possession the shares remaining are of sufficient number to insure his control of the Hull organization, however, and a the election of the five members of the board of directors held yesterday afternoon, three men representing the United Verde interests were given berths in the new organization The settlement of this famous mine suit, besides allaying the friction between the Hull minority and the Clark interests, also marks what is unofficially said to be the end of the long-standing trouble between the United Verde organization and its big neighbor, the United Verde Extension. Embodied in the stipulation is a paragraph which provided for the dismissal of the suit which had been pending in the State Supreme court over the title to the Copper Chief claim in the Verde district. Both the United Verde and the Extension had claimed the Copper Chief, the property being a very rich one, and the
litigation had been of long duration. By the terms of the settlement made yesterday, the Copper Chief is to be divided about equally between the U.V. and the Extension Inventory DB 542 Administrative File Series I Complaints Folder 1 Complaint, filed July 22, 1916 Includes Articles of Incorporation Answer, filed Aug 11, 1916 Complaint in Intervention, filed Nov 26, 1917 Includes full list of stockholders of Hull Copper Co. Amended and Supplemental Complaint, filed c. 1917 (missing pgs 1-2) Folder 2 Amended Answer to Amended and Supplemental complaint, filed Nov 24, 1917 Second amended and Supplemental Complaint, filed March 2, 1918 Includes Exhibit A Promotional description of Hull Copper Company, c. 1907 Answer to Second Amended and Supplemental Complaint, filed March 23, 1918 Series II Affidavits Folder 3 Lincoln H. Beyerle, c. 1917 Includes Exhibit A Minutes of Meeting of Hull Copper Company Board of Trustees, Oct 4, 1916 RE: Stock Transfer to W. L. Clark of United Verde William H. Kemp, Sept 25, 1917 Frederick J. Jennings, Sept 27, 1917 C. L. Nabers, Dec 13, 1917 Charles W. Clark, Dec 14, 1917 Includes Exhibit A, B, C, D, E Correspondence to Stockholders (A-D) and Minority Stockholders Agreement (E) Folder 4 C.V. Hopkins, Dec 14, 1917 Includes Plat Map of a Section of mines owned by the Hull Copper Co. Robert E. Tally, Dec 14, 1917 Frederick J. Jennings, Feb 2, 1918 William H. Kemp, Feb 18, 1918 Andrew B. Tarbett, Feb 18, 1918 George O. Bowman, Feb 18, 1918 John H. Page, Feb 19, 1918 Hugh Mackay, Feb 19, 1918
Benjamin P. Walton, Feb 19, 1918 Series III Depositions Folder 5 Edgar L Hull, July 21, 1916 Folder 6 Orville Bird Stanton, Jan 7, 1917 Folder 7 George W. Brown, Aug 23, 1917 Folder 8 Frederick J. Jennings, Sept 17, 1917 Includes related legal material Folder 9 Frank A. Berical, Sept 27, 1917 Folder 10 Mary Downey, Sept 28, 1917 Folder 11 Will L. Clark, Oct 26, 1917 (2 copies) Folder 12 Tennah Lewis, Dec 8, 1917 Folder 13 Charles W. Clark, March 9, 1918 Series IV Receivership Folder 14 Motion for Appointment of Receiver, filed March 29, 1918 Answer of Defendants to Plaintiff s Motion for Appointment of Receiver and Counter Affidavits in Support Thereof, Filed Dec 18, 1917 Includes Affidavit of S.F. Denison in Opposition to Motion for Appointment of Receiver Order Appointing Receiver, May 21, 1918 Notice of Appeal from Order Appointing Receiver, May 22, 1918 Supersedeas Bond on Appeal from Order Appointing Receiver May 29, 1918 Series V Assorted Folder 15 Telegram to O.B. Stanton from Bank of Arizona, Dec 6, 1906 Assorted Legal Briefs (22) Sept 1916-April 1918 Expansion file folder, legal size, addressed to the Clerk of the Superior Court of Arizona, Nov 19, 1917 Promotional Poster, Nature s Store of Wealth: Hull Copper, 1906 Removed to Oversize Collection DB 132, F. 19, I. 4
Promotional Poster, Hull Copper: The Greatest Investment of 1907 Removed to Map Collection Map #124