Beals v. Cone

27 Colo. 473
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedSeptember 15, 1900
DocketNo. 3907
StatusPublished
Cited by65 cases

This text of 27 Colo. 473 (Beals v. Cone) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beals v. Cone, 27 Colo. 473 (Colo. 1900).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Gabbert

delivered the opinion of the court.

By way of replication to the answer and counterclaim of appellees, appellant interposed (1) what purported to be a plea of res judicata ; and (2) a plea of estoppel in pais.

By the first, it was averred, in effect, that on February 10, 1893,. appellees entered the Ophir lode; that thereafter appellant and others filed a protest against such entry, by which it was alleged that no discovery of mineral thereon had béen made; that a hearing on such protest was had, which resulted in a finding by the land department of the general government, that no discovery had been made on the Ophir; that the discovery shaft thereon was hut twenty-five feet in depth, on the 11th day of October, 1893; that the sinking of such shaft was the only work performed by appellees on the Ophir prior to that date, and that on these findings a judgment was entered, cancelling the entry.

By the second plea, it was averred that the appellee, J. J. Cone, at the hearing above referred to, testified, in substance, that the discovery shaft on the Ophir was but twenty-five feet deep on the 11th day of October, 1893; that no vein had been disclosed thereon at that time, and that no work had been performed on the claim in the year 1893; that by reason of such testimony, appellant and others interested with him were induced to expend a large sum of money in exploring for mineral in the ground in conflict, between the Tecumseh and Ophir lodes, and in working and developing the former; that appellees knew that such expenditure was being made on the faith of the truth of the above statements of appellee Cone, but never contradicted such statements; that if appellees performed any work on the Ophir, in the year 1893 prior to the 11th day of October of that year, sunk the shaft to a greater depth than twenty-five feet, or discovered a vein in such shaft, appellant and those working under him were [479]*479ignorant of such facts. To each of these pleas, a general demurrer was interposed, and sustained. This ruling of the trial court is assigned as error.

It will be borne in mind that the application of appellees for patent to the ground in controversy adversed by appellant, is in no manner based upon the proceedings resulting in an entry which was cancelled as above pleaded, nor do they in any manner base their rights to the ground in controversy by virtue of such application, or the entry thereunder which was afterwards annulled. The claim of counsel for appellant is, that the judgment of the‘land department is res judicata of the facts established in the proceeding instituted by appellant and others, protesting against such entry. In order to constitute a judgment in one action res judicata in another, it must appear that the quality of the parties to each is the same. Slocum v. DeLizardi, 99 Am. Dec. 740; A., T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Commissioners, 12 Kan. 127; Freeman on Judgments, § 252; Bouvier’s Law Dic., title Res Judicata; Benz v. Hines, 3 Kan. 390; Lower Latham R. Co. v. Louden I. C. Co., ante, p. 267.

The judgment rendered by the land department in the matter of the former entry of the land in controversy in no manner settled the rights of the parties to that proceeding to such lands. It merely held that appellees were not entitled to be vested with the fee therein from the general government. The protestants were not parties in interest, because they made no claim to the subject-matter of the controversy, and with respect to that proceeding, occupied the position of amici curice, with the right of showing that appellees had not complied with the requirements of the law relative to obtaining title from the government for mineral lands at the time of their former application. Week’s Mineral Lands, 5 96; In re Mt. Pleasant Mine, Copp’s Mineral Lands, 204.

It is manifest, therefore, that the quality or capacity in which appellant acted in the protest proceedings pleaded, is [480]*480entirely different from the capacity in which he appears, in the present action.

In order to sufficiently plead án estoppel in pais based upon statements, it must be averred, among other things, that the statement relied upon to constitute such estoppel was made with the intention that it should be acted upon. Patterson v. Hitchcock, 8 Colo. 538; People v. Brown, 67 Ill. 435; Martin v. Zellerbach, 38 Cal. 300.

In the replication interposed by appellant on this subject, there is no averment that the statements attributed to the appellee Cone were made by him with the intention of deceiving or misleading appellant or those acting with him, nor is there any allegation that supplies the absence of a direct one to this effect. The demurrer to each plea in the replication was properly sustained.

Numerous errors are assigned on the rulings of the trial court with respect to the admissibility of evidence, some of which axe new and important. On the trial, appellant offered in evidence the decisions of the department of the interior rendered in the matter of the protest against the former application of appellees for patent on the' Ophir lode, together with a notice directed to them, that a hearing had been ordered upon such protest. Each of these was excluded. These decisions were rendered in the proceedings mentioned in the plea of res judicata, to which reference has already been made. The principal contention between the parties was, upon which of the conflicting lode claims was a discovery of mineral first made? The department,. in the protest proceedings, found from the evidence submitted, that no discovery of mineral had been made upon the Ophir on the 11th day of October, 1893. Counsel for appellant contend that these decisions were material evidence, because this finding was conclusive upon that question, and that appellees were precluded from showing a discovery on the Ophir prior to that date. A sufficient answer to this proposition should be that as the judgment rendered in the protest proceedings was not res judicata between the parties to this [481]*481action, that no fact found by the department in those proceedings would be' competent to contradict or establish any fact directly in issue in this. A consideration of the nature of an application for patent to mineral lands which is rejected, and the result of the judgment of the department of the interior which merely holds that the applicant is not entitled to patent, and where the rights of others to the lands em-r braced in the application are not determined, will demonstrate that no finding of fact made by the department in such case is either conclusive or admissible in evidence in another action, in which the applicant bases no rights to the ground in controversy by virtue of such proceedings. Under the law regulating the issuance of patents to mineral lands, and the rules of the department, certain facts must be established. If not, the application is dismissed. Such a judgment is, in effect, one of nonsuit, and therefore not one upon the merits. Iles v. D. & R. G. Ry. Co., 25 Colo. 19.

It is no more than a conclusion, that in that particular application the applicant has failed to establish the necessary facts to entitle him to a patent the same as a judgment of nonsuit would be directed in an action at law, where the plaintiff had failed to establish the facts upon which he relied to entitle him to the judgment demanded.

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Bluebook (online)
27 Colo. 473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beals-v-cone-colo-1900.