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1. This appeal arises from secondary litigation related to earlier litigation addressed by this court in Gold Dust Mines, Inc. v. Little Squaw Gold Mining Co.
2. In the earlier litigation, Judge Olsen entered judgment against Delmer and Gail Ackels and their corporation, Gold Dust Mines, Inc., for ejectment from certain mining claims held by Goldrich and for money damages. Judge Olsen ordered the Ackels group to remove all of its personal property from Goldrich's claims by a certain date; failure to do so would constitute abandonment of the property to Goldrich. The Ackels group moved some equipment and tools from the originally disputed claim, but apparently moved the items onto another of Goldrich's claims and actually mined on the claim. Judge Olsen allowed the Ackels group to move its mining equipment again — onto its own claim this time — and he entered another money judgment against the Ackels group for its mining on Goldrich's claim.
3. Before the Ackels group could move its equipment and tools, Goldrich obtained a writ of execution and levied on all of the Ackels group's property located on Goldrich's claim. The Ackels group's property was sold at an execution sale. The proceeds were applied to Goldrich's money judgments, with the remainder distributed to the Ackels group.
4. About two years later Delmer Ackels (but not Gail Ackels or Gold Dust Mines) filed this separate lawsuit against Goldrich, alleging wrongful conversion of the Ackels group's property. This case was assigned to Superior Court Judge Robert B. Downes. Shortly thereafter we issued our decision in the Ackels group's appeal from Judge Olsen's judgment and post-judgment orders.
5. Goldrich then moved to dismiss Ackels's conversion claim in the case before Judge Downes, arguing that the claim was barred by res judicata — specifically, that all of the claim was or should have been decided in the case before Judge Olsen. Judge Downes agreed and dismissed Ackels's suit. Ackels appeals.
6. Ackels argued in his briefs that there were three categories of property at issue: (1) property deemed abandoned by the Ackels group's failure to remove it from the first Goldrich claim; (2) property properly levied and sold at the execution sale; and (3) property Goldrich allegedly took from the Ackels group's claim but that was not levied and sold at the execution sale. Ackels conceded that he had no legal basis to argue conversion for the first two categories.
7. In short, Ackels's conversion claim is limited to a contention that Goldrich's levy and execution sale were, at least in part, wrongful due to inadequate notice. But any such claim should have been brought in the case where the writ was issued, the levy made, and the execution sale held.
8. We therefore AFFIRM the dismissal of Ackels's lawsuit.