Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co. v. Empire State-Idaho Mining & Developing Co.

134 F. 268, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 5447
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Idaho
DecidedJanuary 17, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 134 F. 268 (Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co. v. Empire State-Idaho Mining & Developing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Idaho primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co. v. Empire State-Idaho Mining & Developing Co., 134 F. 268, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 5447 (circtdid 1903).

Opinion

BEATTY, District Judge.

Complainant, as owner of the Stemwinder Mining Claim, in bringing this action to quiet its title to an underground portion of the ledge thereof, admitting the priority of the Emma and Last Chance mining claims, makes no claim to any part of their surface area, nor to any portion of the ledge lying between the extend[269]*269ed planes passing through their legal end lines; but it claims that underground portion of the ledge lying between the prolonged planes of the Stemwinder end lines and westerly of the prolonged plane passing through the north end line of the Last Chance, being that space represented upon the following plat (showing approximately the relation of the premises) by the lines X T, X Y, and Y R:

[270]*270The said mining claims were located on September 17, 1885, but by judicial determinations the Emma and East Chance, owned by the East Chance Mining Company, have priority of rights. The location of the Stemwinder was amended on May 23, Í887. The Viola, the Skookum, and the San Carlos claims, owned by defendant, were located, respectively, on February 20, April 5, and April 23, 1886. Most of the questions now submitted are involved in an appeal pending in the Circuit Court of Appeals from an order of this court in this case granting a restraining order pendente lite. It is desirable to wait the conclusion of that court; but, as it has been suggested by one of the counsel that action may be delayed until the case on its merits reaches there, it is concluded not to delay.

It has long been held that a mining location may be amended without the forfeiture of any rights acquired by the original location, except such as are inconsistent with the amendment, but new rights cannot be added which are inconsistent with those acquired by other locations made between the dates of the original and the amended location. The amended Stemwinder notice fully states the reasons therefor, and specifically reserves all prior acquired rights. While the new lines are placed almost within the old, they are so laid that in their prolonga-' tion westward they leave out on one side and take in on the other small portions of the ledge not included between the original lines. The amended location is valid against any of defendant’s locations made after the date of the amended notice, May 23, 1887; but, as to those made between the dates of the original and the amended location, it is void as to any portion of the ledge claimed by the amended location which was not included in the original, in so far as it conflicts with any of defendant’s locations involved in this action.

The defendant contends that the south line of the Emma, prolonged westward, should bound the extralateral rights of the Stemwinder. It was so held by this court (108 Fed. 194), which was reversed by the appellate court (109 Fed. 538, 48 C. C. A. 665). I now think that this court should have held, as it then suggested, that the north boundary line of the Stemwinder should be one drawn parallel to its south line at the place where the ledge crosses the Emma line. This would have been consistent with the “overlap” doctrine and some other rulings, and would have given the Stemwinder the same length of ledge underground that it has of the apex, which in my opinion is the undoubted 'contemplation of the law. But the complainant is not content with this, and demands that its extralateral rights be limited only by its end lines as laid. If it is correct, then the locator of an unclaimed apex of even 10 feet may overlap other valid locations for 1,490 feet, and thereby claim extralateral rights for the distance of 1,500 feet of all the fractional underground portions of the ledge not included in prior extra-lateral rights. If this is the law, it must lead to great confusion of rights. It is said that the Supreme Court has in effect so held. I am unable to so read its decisions. I think that the argument in the Del Monte Case, 171 U. S. 55, 18 Sup. Ct. 895, 43 L. Ed. 72, is to the contrary, for on page 85, 171 U. S., page 907, 18 Sup. Ct., 43 L. Ed. 72, it says:

[271]*271“Perhaps the rights of the junior locator below the surface are limited to the length of the vein within the surface of the territory patented to him, but it is unnecessary to now decide that matter.”

So far as my attention has been directed, that court has not decided this question, at least not as to the vein upon which the discovery and location is made. The question of doubt with me is concerning the decision of the Court of Appeals in 109 Fed., 48 C. C. A., where on page 542, 109 Fed., and page 670, 48 C. C. A., it is said that:

“Across that ledge and on unappropriated public land the locator of the Stemwinder laid his southerly end line, and along the course of the ledge and on unappropriated public land he laid his westerly side line. Across the ledge, partly on unappropriated public land and partly on the prior Emma location, he laid his northerly end line, parallel with his southerly end line, and along the course of the ledge, partly on the Emma and partly on unappropriated public land, he laid his easterly side line, almost, if not quite, parallel with his westerly side line. As, in the absence of any objection on the part of the owner of the Emma, the locator of the Stemwinder had the legal right to cross the prior location, his lines, as against the government and all subsequent locators, would therefore seem to have been perfectly laid. Under such circumstances, we are unable to see why, as against the government and all subsequent locators, the location should not carry precisely the same rights, surface and extralateral, that it would carry if none of the lines had been laid upon or over a prior location, which, under the statute governing extralateral rights, would give to the locator of the Stemwinder, as against the government and all subsequent locators, the right to follow the dip of the vein in its departure from the westerly side line of the claim indefinitely between vertical planes drawn through the parallel end lines extended indefinitely in their own direction.”

The court describes the same end lines claimed by complainant in this action, and says that its éxtralateral rights extend indefinitely between the planes of those lines. While that was in another case, with its differing facts, it yet seems to me that the doctrine announced sustains complainant’s claim. If so, the plain duty of this court is to follow it. There is, however, one question of uncertainty involved in the suggestion of the appellate courts that a junior location cannot be laid over a senior, against the objection of the owner. What must be the nature of the objection or resistance seems nowhere to be clearly defined. In the Del Monte Case (page 83, 171 U. S., page 906, 18 Sup. Ct., 43 L. Ed. 72) it is said that:

“A party who is in actual possession of a valid location may maintain that possession and exclude every one from trespassing thereon, and no one is at liberty to forcibly disturb his possession or enter upon his premises.”

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Bluebook (online)
134 F. 268, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 5447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bunker-hill-sullivan-mining-concentrating-co-v-empire-state-idaho-circtdid-1903.