A provision of the Mineral Act (B.C.), which provided that "no person ... shall be recognized as having any right or interest in or to any mining property unless he or it has a free miner's certificate unexpired," did not prevent a partner from seeking an accounting of his share of partnership profits from mining claims." Davis J. quoted the following statement of Romer L.J. in Re Bourne, [1906] 2 Ch. 427:
"It is to be borne in mind that the real interest of the partnership in real estate is of a personal character, because wherever the legal estate may by, whether it is in the partners jointly or in one partner or in a stranger it does not matter, the beneficiary interest in the real estate belongs to the partnership, with an implied trust for sale for the purpose of realizing the assets and for the purpose of giving to the two partners their interests when the partnership is wound up and an account taken."