Burke v. Bunker Hill & S. Mining & Concentrating Co.

46 F. 644, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1323
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Idaho
DecidedJune 18, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 46 F. 644 (Burke v. Bunker Hill & S. Mining & Concentrating 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
Burke v. Bunker Hill & S. Mining & Concentrating Co., 46 F. 644, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1323 (circtdid 1891).

Opinion

Sawyer, J.

This is a suit brought in the territorial district court, before the admission of Idaho into the Union as a state, where it was still pending at the date of admission. It was brought in pursuance of the provisions of section 2326, Rev. St., to determine the adverse claims of the parties to a mining claim, for which defendant had made application for a patent under section 2325. After the admission of Idaho as a state, the plaintiff, in pursuance of the provisions of section 18 of the act of admission, filed a request in the state court, which had acquired possession of the records, based upon an affidavit showing what is claimed to be the necessary jurisdictional facts for a transfer of the case to the United States circuit court for the district of Idaho. Among other things, it is alleged, as follows, in the affidavit forming a part of the request, and upon which it is in part based:

“That plaintiffs claim to be the owners of the Mammoth Mining Claim by virtue of a valid location of the same under the provisions of chapter 6, tit. 32, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and claim to have posted a notice of location at the point of discovery and recorded a substantial copy of said notice in the office of the recorder of Shoshone county, but do not claim to have recorded said notice in the oilice of the local recorder of the Yreka mining district, in which the claim is situated. The legislature of Idaho territory prior to said law enacted a law requiring the notice to be so recorded in said local mining district, which the defendant will maintain on the trial was a mandatory law, and that a failure to comply with its provisions rendered the record and location of plaintiff void, while plaintiffs will maintain that the said act if mandatory is in conflict with the section 2324 of the Revised Statutes of the United States and a failure to comply with its terms would not affect the validity of plaintiffs’ title. That the defendants will insist on said trial that the location of plaintiffs’ claim to be valid as against the defendants must be made in strict conformity with the statutes of Idaho territory, and plaintiffs will contend that said statutes are in conflict with the provisions of said chapter 6, tit. 32, of the Revised Statutes of the United States. Plaintiffs will also introduce at the trial of said cause the notice of location as the same was recorded in the said county recorder’s office which plaintiffs will maintain is in compliance with the said acts of congress. Defendants contend that said notice of location is not in compliance with said act of congress. Plaintiffs will also offer evidence of the marking of their said claim on the ground so that its boundaries could be readily traced. Defendants will contend that the claim [646]*646was not so marked because the posts marking the same were not placed within the limits of the claim as allowed by law, and that the claim was staked in excess of the length allowed by law, and therefore void, while plaintiffs will admit the fact that the claim was staked in excess of the size allowed by law, but contend that under the actof congress of May 10,1872, under which plaintiffs claim, the claim was not rendered void thereby but only void as to the excess. ”

Upon filing the request and affidavit, plaintiffs made application to the state district court, which then had the custody of the records, for an order directing the clerk to transmit all papers, pleadings, files, etc., in said court to the circuit court of the United States, which application the court denied. Whereupon the plaintiffs procured a certified tram script of the record, and filed it in this court.

The plaintiffs now move for an order of this court, commanding the said district court, and the clerk thereof, to forthwith transmit to this court all papers, pleadings, and files in said cause in said district court. And the defendant makes a counter-motion to strike from the records of this court the transcript of the record of said case filed herein, on the ground that the original pleadings, files and proceedings are to be transmitted, and that they only can constitute, or furnish a record upon which this court can act — a transcript thereof being insufficient, undex the laws to authorize any judicial action in the case in this court.

Objections by defendant are made that the pleadings and affidavit forming part of the request, on various grounds do not show a case over which this court has jurisdiction. ■ The value of the mine is not alleged, as would have been better, but we think upon the whole, that the allegation in the complaint that plaintiff has sustained by the action of the defendant in depreciating the value of the mine, damages to the amount of $10,000, and a claim for a judgment for that amount, shows a case for jurisdiction, so far as the amount in controversy is concerned. It is claimed on one side and denied on the other, that this suit having been brought to determine the title to a mining claim in pursuance to the requirements of section 2326 of the Revised Statutes, as amended in March, 1881, (1 Supp. Rev. St. 609,) is, for that reason, a suit arising under the laws of the United States, within the meaning of the statute giving jurisdiction on that ground, irrespective of the character of the questions involved in the litigation. It seems to us, that all the authorities, as they now stand, have determined the question in favor of the affirmative of this proposition. Thus the point was directly decided on the circuit on a motion to remand, this being the only point on the motion, by Mr. Justice Miller of the supreme court, in Frank G. & S. M. Co. v. Larimer M. & S. Co., 8 Fed. Rep. 724. A like decision was made by Justice Brewer, then circuit judge, in Cheesman v. Shreeve, 37 Fed. Rep. 36. So the same ruling was made by Knowles, J., in Strasburger v. Beecher, 44 Fed. Rep. 213. Says the judge:

“As to this suit, I am clearly of the opinion that it is one which arises under the laws of the United States. It is a suit instituted in pursuance of the provisions of section 2326 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. See Frank G. & S. M. Co. v. Larimer M. & S. Co., 8 Fed. Rep. 724. One of tire [647]*647objects of such an action is to determine who is entitled to a patent to the premises in dispute. The judgment is filed in the United States land-office on the determination of the action. To some extent the United States is a party to the action. See Jackson v. Roby, 109 U. S. 440, 3 Sup. St. Rep. 301. This decision must be based upon the theory, it appears to me, that the action, pursuant to an adverse claim, has for one of its objects the determination as to whether either party has divested the United States of the possessory title to the premises in dispute.”

That is to say, it is not only intended to determine the rights of the two parties as between themselves, but also as between each of the parties and the United States, so as to determine finally whether either party has so far performed the conditions prescribed by the statute as to entitle him to pay for the mine and receive a patent from the United States, thereby making the United States, substantially, though not formally, a party to the suit, and entitled to have their rights determined in the national courts. This idea is supported by the amendment to section 2326 of 1881, (1 Supp. Rev. St. 609,) which provides as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
46 F. 644, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burke-v-bunker-hill-s-mining-concentrating-co-circtdid-1891.