Allied Properties v. Jacobsen

343 P.2d 1016, 75 Nev. 369, 74 A.L.R. 2d 879, 1959 Nev. LEXIS 161
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 16, 1959
DocketNo. 4164; No. 4165
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 343 P.2d 1016 (Allied Properties v. Jacobsen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allied Properties v. Jacobsen, 343 P.2d 1016, 75 Nev. 369, 74 A.L.R. 2d 879, 1959 Nev. LEXIS 161 (Neb. 1959).

Opinion

[370]*370OPINION

By the Court,

Badt, J.:

Allied Properties has appealed from a judgment against it and in favor of Harold Jacobsen and Josephine [371]*371Jacobsen, his wife, in the sum of $3,023.49 damages resulting from Allied’s trespass de bonis asportatis by reason of Allied’s removal of Jacobsen’s cattle from the enclosed area known as Lime Mountain Field.

Jacobsen, in June 1952, placed certain of his cattle in the Lime Mountain Field, situate in the cattle country of northern Elko County, and Allied put them out of the field July 23, 1952. Jacobsen’s action for damage for trespass de bonis asportatis followed.

The primary question presented to this court is whether the Jacobsen cattle, at the time they were turned out, were properly in the Lime Mountain Field (in which event notice should have been given to Jacob-sen of Allied’s intention so to do, 53 C.J.S. Licenses sec. 94, p. 821) or whether Jacobsen’s cattle were then trespassing (in which event no notice to Jacobsen prior to removal was required. 2 Am.Jur. Animals sec. 126, p. 787). It is Jacobsen’s contention that he had an annual license from Allied to graze his cattle in said field and that they were therefore properly there and could not be removed without prior notice to him. Allied concedes that it granted to Jacobsen a license to place certain steers in the field in June 1951, to graze in common with the steers of Allied and two other users, namely, Reed and Sharpe, for a limited period that season and contends that the license thus given was limited to that season and that when Jacobsen again placed his steers in Lime Mountain Field in June 1952 he was there without right and in trespass.

The question as thus presented is disarmingly simplified. The proper application of the law to the facts of this case requires a rather complete understanding of the situation under which the asserted license was given.

The Lime Mountain Field is an extremely large area, appearing from the map to be some six miles easterly and westerly and some five miles or more northerly and southerly. It appears roughly to be comprised one-half of the privately owned lands of Allied and Reed and one-half government land. It is traversed by what appear to be public roads, and a number of creeks flow into and out of it — Chicken Creek, Hot Creek, Deep Creek and [372]*372others. Bull Run Creek is to the north. The Reed properties are to the east. Allied also has very extensive properties to the north, to the east and to the west of the Lime Mountain Field and extending far to the west, to the neighborhood of the Deep Creek reservoir.

Mark Scott was Allied’s foreman from 1936 to 1953. The Lime Mountain Field was partly surrounded by fences prior to 1936. The east boundary fence was in and part of the west boundary fence was in. The north boundary fence was built in 1943. The west fence had been built by the Garrats, Allied’s predecessors, long before, but leaving about one and one-half miles of fence open. This gap was closed by the construction by Scott of the fence in 1947 or 1948 with the permission of Boyd Hammond, the range federal manager, upon obtaining the consent of other stock owners whose stock drifted into the area. As respondents’ witness, Scott testified that, with the south end and the west side open, “they got so they was turning their cattle in there in the spring early, and that is the reason we put the fence in * * *. They were turning them out around Chicken Creek and down on Deep Creek inside this field.” He described the operation of Lee Reborse, Jacobsen’s predecessor. Reborse turned his cattle out down by the VN ranch, which appears from the map to be some nine or ten miles west of the westerly boundary of Lime Mountain Field. When he came back in the spring he would work his cattle, put his steers on the reserve and put his cows and calves in the Cornucopia area and along Canyon Creek and Chicken Creek, an area entirely outside the Lime Mountain Field. The only ones who turned stock into the Lime Mountain Field, and into the Lime Mountain area before the fence was closed, were Allied, Reed, and Sharpe. The only other livestock that got into the Lime Mountain Field after the fence was completed would be in the event “somebody might leave the gate down, or some crawl through the fence,” and when the cattle were gathered later, there would always be some other cattle in it of various brands. Other stock that got into the field were stock of Tuffy Andrae, Jacobsen, Pio Achabal, Dr. Stevens, and Ellison. These other people [373]*373did not drive into that area. They did not “turn out” in the area. Jacobsen’s predecessors did not turn out in that area. Only one, Tuffy Andrae, put some cattle in the area, “that is the reason we put the fence in.” After the construction of the fence, a few drifted in through the fence or through gates or over cattle guards. These were cattle that had been grazing outside in the Taylor unit. The only three outfits that actually turned out in the Lime Mountain area “that really had a right to turn out [there]” were Allied, Sharpe, and Reed. This was up to the time that Andrae attempted to turn out there and was resisted.

All this presents the precise picture. The fence was built to keep Allied stock in the area (with Reed and Sharpe) and to keep other livestock out of the area. It was “not customary” for anyone to run in that field but Allied, Sharpe, and Reed.

The Bureau of Land Management,1 through its range manager, Boyd Hammond, had granted oral permission to Allied to close the gaps in the fence upon obtaining consent of the stockowners whose stock drifted into the area. Such oral consent was not given pursuant to a formal written petition to be later acted upon by the Bureau of Land Management (after notice, etc., as contemplated by the terms of the Taylor Grazing Act, NRS 568.010 et seq.), but it was pursuant to such oral consent that Mark Scott, as Allied’s foreman, completed the fences in 1947 and 1948. Allied, Reed, and Sharpe were granted grazing permits to run in common in this area. Scott contacted the neighbors, including Jacobsen’s predecessor and, no objections being made, the fences were constructed, and thereafter Allied, Reed, and Sharpe turned their cattle into Lime Mountain Field in June of each year and had them all removed toward the end of July when the field had been grazed off. In 1951 and 1952 Jacobsen was given a permit by the BLM to run, after June 15, in the Taylor unit outside of this field, per customary use, and 100 percent on the public domain. His entire herd ran [374]*374to about 250 head, which included about 60 steers. The size of the Allied outfit may be gleaned from the fact that in 1952 it was running about 1,400 steers (in addition to the Reed and Sharpe steers) in the Lime Mountain Field. This, to a cattleman, would indicate a complete herd of some 8,000 head of Allied’s cattle.

It was under these circumstances that a conversation was had between Jacobsen and Scott that June morning, 1951. It is from such conversation under the circumstances recited, that it must be determined whether the license granted by Allied, through its foreman Scott, was restricted to the year 1951 (as contended by Allied) or continued on to 1952 and succeeding years, until revoked (as contended by Jacobsen).

Scott’s testimony is brief.

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Bluebook (online)
343 P.2d 1016, 75 Nev. 369, 74 A.L.R. 2d 879, 1959 Nev. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allied-properties-v-jacobsen-nev-1959.