In appealing the default judgment against him in Texas, Caldwell is claiming that he was never served notice of the suit or the damages award. But Tom Matlock says from the time the Texas judgment was enforced in Colorado in 1991, Caldwell contested it on other issues. "He fought it on the grounds of `that ain't my dog,' that he was just the trustee," Matlock says. "Common sense says when you hear about an $18 million judgment against you, the first thing you say is, `Hey, I was never served.'" Caldwell didn't raise the point until May 1993--a delay that Matlock says undercuts the credibility of the claim.
Judge Barnhill's ruling that Caldwell's debt to Barnes must be paid with assets from the Chain O' Mines leaves Scott Hobbs and other relatives of Chain O' Mines' early shareholders out in the cold. Hobbs is incredulous. He points to two 1969 deeds signed by his great-aunt and other company officers transferring title of the corporate property to "Harold Caldwell, trustee." "Do they really think that my aunt and the people she worked with were so stupid as to have given Mr. Caldwell properties that include the Glory Hole, the mill, the parking lots--properties that contain billions in gold--for ten dollars [the amount specified on the deed]?" he demands.
But that's not the worst of it, according to Hobbs, who spends his days working in the maintenance shop at the Fedco store in Costa Mesa. "What Barnhill is saying is that my aunt and the others--my sweet, lovable, religious aunt from the Old World who lived to 99 and always believed you worked hard and didn't pull the wool over people's eyes--he's saying that my Aunt Nettie was a crook," he says. "That doesn't settle with me. I'm never going to let it rest. I will never stop until justice is done."
Attorney Hampson, however, believes justice has already been done. "Hobbs is the heir of somebody who owned some stock in a company," he says. "But his relative transferred that property to [Caldwell] 25 years ago. They don't own it anymore."
Hobbs finds the notion that his aunt was tricked by Caldwell preposterous. "In truth, he didn't even want to be trustee," he says of Caldwell. "They had to talk him into it. He was picked for a reason. He's a tough old bird, and he's had to fight off people like Barnes over the years--and that takes a very strong-willed individual.
"My aunt and the others were very trusting people, and they trusted him completely," he adds. "She always said that there was a trust for us and Mr. Caldwell was watching over it. She always said he'd take care of us financially."
Judging from Caldwell's Chapter 11 filing, he intends to do just that. In the bankruptcy papers, Caldwell lists Scott Hobbs as his largest creditor, allegedly owed $6 billion as the latest trustee for Chain O' Mines. "If I'm not the trustee," says Caldwell, "then, by God, that property should revert to the people who deeded it to me."
"You can't get any sense out of him," responds Alan Hampson of Caldwell's most recent claim. Each time he examined Caldwell on the stand, Hampson says, he came away thinking Caldwell wanted only to "create as much smoke and confusion as he could." The lawyer sees Caldwell's bankruptcy filing as another such attempt.
Caldwell has appealed Judge Barnhill's rulings against him; the case is now before the Colorado Court of Appeals. Hampson says he's anxious for the appeals court to take up the case. "Let them put on any witness they want," he says of Caldwell and his attorneys. "Let them put on any evidence they want. And let's see what the truth is."
Meanwhile, others continue to look at the Glory Hole and hope. Jeff Schmidt, a Palm Springs resident and former miner at the Glory Hole who now claims the title of president of Chain O' Mines, Inc., says he's waiting for the legal wrangling to be resolved. Then mining at the Glory Hole will resume, he promises. "We've got rich, rich ore," he says.
end of part 2
