Brown v. Luddy

9 P.2d 326, 121 Cal. App. 494, 1932 Cal. App. LEXIS 1254
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 10, 1932
DocketDocket No. 4440.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 9 P.2d 326 (Brown v. Luddy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Luddy, 9 P.2d 326, 121 Cal. App. 494, 1932 Cal. App. LEXIS 1254 (Cal. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

*496 COMSTOCK, J., pro tem.

Plaintiffs brought this action to quiet title to a quartz mining claim known as the “Never Sweat Quartz Mine” in Calaveras County. Defendants answered and also filed a cross-complaint to quiet title to certain lands patented to the defendant Buddy by the United States government as a stock-raising homestead.

The mining claim was located on the public domain in 1896 by plaintiffs’ predecessors in interest. All requirements of the law in respect to the location of quartz mining claims were fulfilled and the annual assessment work has all been performed. No patent has 'been issued to plaintiffs. In 1922, the defendant Buddy made application for a stock-raising homestead, and thereafter, on the twelfth day of January, 1927, a patent to said homestead was issued to him by the United States. Plaintiffs had no actual knowledge of said defendant’s application and no contest was made on the issuance of the patent. The mining claim is of the usual dimensions, 600x1500 feet. The patent to Buddy describes a tract of land 481.97 acres in extent and overlaps the mining claim on 1.96 acres of the southerly end thereof. In the course of the development of the claim several cuts have been made near the point of discovery about the center thereof and a tunnel has been driven into the ground about 300 feet in length. The ore and waste material have been removed from the portal of this tunnel, which is located about 325 feet northerly of the north boundary of the patented homestead, and much of it has been taken across the main county road running through the claim near its southerly end and dumped on the southerly side thereof. Defendant Buddy has known at all times since 1897 of the existence of the tunnel and has noticed the dirt and rock being dumped below the road during much of that time. He was road-master on that road for a number of years under his father, who was a supervisor of Calaveras County, and was very familiar with the locality. He did not at the time he made his affidavit and proof for the purpose of securing his patent actually know where the boundary lines of the Never Sweat Claim were nor had he ever made any effort to locate or ascertain where they lay.

The only interest of the defendant Raggio is as a purchaser from Buddy under a partially performed contract for *497 the sale and purchase of 3.41 acres of land, which includes the 1.96 acres in dispute. Under the terms of this contract, Baggio is entitled to possession during performance, but title is retained by Buddy. A deed conveying a good and merchantable title is to be executed and delivered by Buddy when performance is complete.

Plaintiffs’ amended complaint is in the usual form of a complaint to quiet title to real estate, except that it does not allege title in fee in plaintiffs, but only that they are the owners and in possession and entitled to possession of a parcel of land consisting of a quartz mining claim known as the Never Sweat Bode, particularly describing it, and that at all times in said complaint mentioned there has existed and still exists, in and upon said quartz mining claim, valuable mineral deposits, which fact for many years past has been known to defendants. The prayer, substantially, is that defendants be required to set forth the nature of their claims; that the adverse claims of defendants be determined; that it be adjudged that plaintiffs are the owners of said premises, and that defendants have no estate or interest whatever in said land or premises; that defendants be forever debarred from asserting any claim therein adverse to plaintiffs, and for general equitable relief. The answer denies ownership of said claim by plaintiffs, admits that defendants claim an interest in the premises adverse to plaintiffs, and alleges ownership thereof in fee in the defendants; denies that there exists, or that there ever existed upon the said premises, any valuable mineral deposits; denies that defendants or either of them ever had knowledge of the existence of any valuable mineral deposits in or upon the property described or any part or portion thereof, and alleges that there is not and never has been any mineral deposit of any kind or value in or upon said land or any part thereof. The cross-complaint alleges that on January 12, 1927, the land claimed by Buddy was public domain of the United States; that on said day it was duly patented to him ; that Buddy is the owner in fee thereof, and that plaintiffs claim an interest adverse to him. The prayer is to quiet title to the entire 481.97 acres in the defendants. Plaintiffs answered the cross-complaint denying all of the allegations thereof, except as to the issuance of the patent to Buddy, and alleging that there was excepted from the property patented *498 all minerals in the lands patented, together with the right to prospect for, mine and remove the same; denied that the patent was regularly issued, and alleged that at all times in the cross-complaint mentioned and for many years prior thereto there existed, in and upon the property described in plaintiffs’ complaint, valuable mineral deposits, the existence of which was at all times known to defendants and by Buddy concealed from the general land office when he made application for the patent.

Judgment was entered in favor of the defendant Buddy on the cross-complaint, declaring him to be the owner in fee of the 481.97 acres claimed by him, “except as to all coal and mineral contained therein, together with the right to prospect for, mine and remove the same, subject and pursuant to the provisions and limitations of an Act of Congress entitled ‘Stockraising Homestead Act of December 29, 1916’ ” (39 Stats. 862), and quieting his title thereto against all claims of the plaintiffs. It was further adjudged that the plaintiffs are the owners, subject to the paramount title of the United States, of all of the Never Sweat Quartz Mining Claim except the 1.96-acre portion thereof in conflict with defendant Buddy’s patent, and that as to such portion plaintiffs are the owners, subject to the paramount title of the United States, of all coal and mineral, if any, contained in the land within said conflicting portion of said claim, “together with the right to prospect for, mine and remove the same subject and pursuant to the provisions and limitations of an Act of Congress entitled ‘ Stockraising Homestead Act of December 29, 1916’ ” (39 Stats. 862), and plaintiffs’ title thereto was quieted against the defendants. Defendant Buddy was awarded his costs against plaintiffs. Plaintiffs moved for a new trial, which was denied. The appeal is by plaintiffs and is taken from the judgment.

Plaintiffs contend that the evidence is insufficient to support the findings and that the findings do not support the judgment. It is also urged that the court erred in denying their motion for a new trial.

The only subject matter of the controversy on this appeal is the surface rights in the 1.96 acres brought into conflict by the overlapping descriptions.

The principal point made by plaintiffs is that a valid location having been made and kept alive to the present time by *499

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Bluebook (online)
9 P.2d 326, 121 Cal. App. 494, 1932 Cal. App. LEXIS 1254, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-luddy-calctapp-1932.