Obituary Percy Claire Finlay

Percy Claire Finlay, best known for his association with Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines for more than half a century, died at Toronto General Hospital on June 29. He was 89.

Finlay was active in the mining industry until his death and often addressed simply as “P.C.” He was a life member of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and attended the association’s 1988 convention earlier this year where he was a member of the head table at the an nual banquet.

Throughout his career he was usually in his Toronto law office by 7:30 a.m. and only recently began leaving the office early, at 4:30 p.m., to avoid the rush hour traffic. It was at his desk in his office that he suffered a stroke June 29. He was taken to the hospital and died shortly after.

A strong proponent of the mining industry and the entrepreneurial spirit, he remarked to The Northern Miner in 1976 that “Excessive regulation has been one of the reasons the private prospector is practically driven out of business these days. * * * No more can a group get together and decide to do prospecting as we did in the old days.”

His first association with prospecting dates back to 1926, two years after he joined the law firm of Holden and Murdoch as a solicitor. He put up $200 for a 10% interest in a group taking part in the Loveland staking rush.

He was involved in several staking syndicates since then including a 10% interest in the team prospecting in Quebec’s Chibougamau area which came up with the Henderson copper-gold orebody, subsequently sold to Campbell Chibougamau Mines, now Campbell Resources.

Nevertheless, he claimed that in all those ventures he only managed to break even.

His long association with Hollinger, which later became Hollinger Inc., began in 1924, shortly after his graduation from Osgoode Law School, when he joined Holden and Murdoch which acted as Hollinger’s solicitors. Then, in 1936, he was appointed legal secretary and, in 1961, vice-president and treasurer. He became a director of the company in 1957 and its president and chief executive officer in 1979, then chairman later in 1979. At the time of his death he was honorary chairman and an active director who never missed a meeting.

He was also, until his death, actively involved with the Mining Association of Canada of which he was a founding director and member of the executive committee in 1935. He also served as secretary and director of the Gold Institute.

In the field of law, one of Finlay’s most memorable cases was known as the “minerals separation case.” It concerned the use of xanthates which, in the 1930s, was a flotation reagent widely used in milling. Its use was subject to a royalty. Several large mining concerns banded together to contest the patents claimed by the U.S. patentee. Noranda was used as a test case.

The suit was finally concluded in 1951, ten years after it had been initiated.

The case was heard in the Exchequer Court, where the group lost, in the Supreme Court of Canada, where the group won, and then went to England, to the Privy Council, on appeal. (Cases started before 1948 were eligible to be pleaded before that English court.) He sat through the proceedings for three weeks, but was not called on to speak.

The mining companies won the case. Finlay said later that the case revolved around the interpretation of two words, “such as,” that had been included in the original patent in 1921 at the insistence of one of the lawyers for the patentee.

Finlay was born Dec. 2, 1898, on Pelee Island, Ont., the son of a tobacco farmer. He attended Pelee Island Public School and Leamington High School before attending the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., where he graduated with a degree in arts.

In 1935 he married Elsie Reppen, who predeceased him just days earlier. Together they had two children, John Robert and Mary Jane. He became a partner and eventually became a senior partner in the firm of Holden and Murdoch, now Holden, Murdoch and Finlay. He was appointed a King’s Council in 1945.

He was a director of the Universal Savings Group of Mutual Funds at the time of his death and had retired as a director and officer of several prominent companies including Peel Village Developments, Norcen Energy Resources and the Iron Ore Company of Canada. He was also associated with many mining companies including Goldlund and Newnorth Mines.

He was a member of the Big Bay Point Gold and Country Club, the Engineers Club of Toronto, and the Granite Club and was a life member of the York Downs Golf and Country Club.