In re Woodside Coal Co.

McPHERSOK, District Judge.

The bankrupt having moved to set aside the adjudication on the ground that a coal-mining company is not a corporation principally engaged in manufacturing, trading, .or mercantile pursuits (section 4, cl. “b,” Act 1898), the question was referred.to the referee, who decided in favor of the motion. The *57 relevant facts are that the bankrupt is a Pennsylvania corporation, chartered for the purpose of “mining and quarrying coal and_ preparing and shipping the same to market,” and that its sole business has been the carrying out of this purpose. Upon these facts I am of opinion that the decision of the referee was right, and that the petition must be dismissed.

That a mining company is not engaged in manufacturing, within the ordinary meaning of this word, lias been several times decided, and I agree with the correctness of the ruling. Whether a mining company is not engaged in trading — using that word in a large sense • — may, perhaps, admit of more doubt, and I am not sure how I might .decide that question'if the point arose now for the first time. But the question has already been decided in three eases that arose in other districts, and I am unable to reach a clear conviction that a different conclusion should have been reached. In view of the advisability of uniformity in decision, so far as uniformity may be attainable, I shall therefore follow my Brethren who have already considered lliis question and have decided that a mining company is not engaged in trading or mercantile pursuits. In re Elk Park Min. & Mill. Co. (D. C.) 101 Fed. 422 ; In re Rollins Gold & Silver Min. Co. (D. C.) 102 Fed. 982 ; In re Chicago-Joplin Lead & Zinc Co. (D. C.) 104 Fed. 67. See, also, the analogous cases In re Cameron Town Mut. Fire. Lightning & Windstorm Ins. Co. (D. C.) 96 Fed. 756 , and In re New York & W. Water Co. (D. C.) 98 Fed. 711 . Contra, In re San Gabriel Sanatorium (D. C.) 95 Fed. 271 .

It may, perhaps, be worth suggesting that, although mining companies are in some sense engaged in trade, nevertheless they belong so plainly to a distinct class of trading corporations that they’ are almost always specifically named in any statute that is intended to embrace them. Failure to name them, therefore, raises a presumption of some force that they were not. in the legislative view.

The adjudication is set aside, and the petition in bankruptcy is dismissed.