Luther v. Maple

This action was commenced in Minnesota State District Court to quite title to certain historical documents written in the main by William Clark, of the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition. The documents, herein referred to as the res, and whose whereabouts were unknown for approximately 150 years, were found in the attic of the St. Paul, Minnesota, home of a Mrs. Sophia V. H. Foster after her death in 1952. They were discovered in a desk formerly owned by General John Henry Hammond, Mrs. Fosters father, who died in 1890. The First Trust Company of St. Paul brought the action originally as executor of the last will and testament of Mrs. Foster, naming the Minnesota Historial Society, the then custodian of the papers, and certain descendant and collateral relatives of Mrs. Foster as defendants. Some of the individual defendants claimed interests in the res through the estate of Mrs. Fosters mother, Mrs. Sophia W. Hommond. The remaining individual defendants claim interests in the res directly through Mrs. Fosters estate. The Minnesota Historical Society was named a defendant because it could claim a lien on the res for labor expended by it in collating and transcribing the contents of the 67 documents comprising the res. This claim of lien was duly asserted in the Societys answer to the original complaint.