Chandler v. Utah Copper Co.

135 P. 106, 43 Utah 479, 1913 Utah LEXIS 88
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 8, 1913
DocketNo. 2128
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 135 P. 106 (Chandler v. Utah Copper Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chandler v. Utah Copper Co., 135 P. 106, 43 Utah 479, 1913 Utah LEXIS 88 (Utah 1913).

Opinion

McCAETY, C. J.

This is an action in equity in which plaintiffs seek to enjoin defendant from diverting the water from a certain subterranean channel or water course in Bingham Canyon, Salt Lake County, Utah. Erom a judgment rendered and entered dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint, this appeal is'taken.

Plaintiffs are, and for twenty years have been, the owners of 2000 acres of arid land situate at or near the moiith of Bingham Canyon. This land comprises what is known as the Butcher ranch. Plaintiffs and their grantors, for about thirty-five years next preceding the commencement of this action, used the water of Bingham Creek, of which there is but a limited supply, to irrigate about 140 acres of the land [481]*481mentioned and for culinary purposes. In 1888 the Watson Mining Company, a corporation, was the owner of a portion of what is known as the Ireland and Watson placer mining claim, patented as United States lot 183, situate in Bingham Canyon, and was also the owner of certain other placer mining claims adjoining the Ireland and Watson placer claim.

The court’s fourth finding of fact, which is fully supported by the evidence, is, so far as material here, as follows:

“That, while said Watson Mining Company was the owner of said (Ireland and Watson) placer mining claim, it caused to be run and constructed a certain tunnel about 3000 feet long, commonly known and called the WatsolL tunnel: said tunnel being run and made in what is known as Bingham Canyon, Salt Lake County, Utah. That in driving said tunnel said Watson Mining Company encountered water which flowed out of said tunnel. That thereafter, and in the year 1890, the said Watson Mining Company, then owner of a portion of said Ireland and Watson mining claim . . . and other adjoining placer mining claims, pursuant to the terms of a contract with the plaintiff above named, George E. Chandler, for good and valuable consideration, granted bargained, sold and conveyed unto said plaintiff George E. Chandler and to Charles W. Watson, now deceased, the husband of the said plaintiff Martha J. Watson, and to their heirs and assigns forever, all the waters and the use to all the waters then flowing from or which might thereafter flow from or to be developed in or by said Watson tunnel, its branches and connections then existing or thereafter made. (Italics ours.) The court further finds that in the year 1898 the said Watson Mining Company sold and conveyed to the said defendant West Mountain Placer Mining Company all its right, title, and interest in and to the said Ireland and Watson placer mining claims, also that certain placer mining claim known as the Scoville placer mining claim, together with various and other placer claims then and theretofore owned by said Watson Mining Company, situate near or adjacent to said above-mentioned patented claims; that the [482]*482said property so sold and conveyed included a portion of the property in wbicb said Watson tunnel bad been driven in or run and constructed. That said defendant West Mountain Placer Mining Company took and received said conveyance from said Watson Mining Company of said above-mentioned mining claims and property with notice of the conveyance by said Watson Mining Company to said plaintiff George E. Chandler and said Charles W. Watson of the waters developed and flowing through said Watson tunnel, as aforesaid.”

The placer claims mentioned and referred to in the foregoing finding of facts extend from the mouth of the Watson tunnel westerly up and along Bingham Canyon and take in the entire bed of Bingham Creek for a distance of about 7000 feet. The bed of the creek where the same passes along and through these placer claims is composed of a thick layer of deposits of gravel and cement. The cement, which contains placer gold, lies near the bedrock underneath the gravel and from 100 to 130 feet below the surface of the creek bed. The Watson tunnel was constructed and used primarily as a drain tunnel to drain and draw off the percolating and underground flow of water from the cement and gravel deposits mentioned so that they could be successfully mined. In other words, to drain off the water so that the gravel might be brought to the surface through shafts and inclines and panned for gold. The tunnel was timbered with “common tunnel sets” or round timbers about six or eight inches in diameter and from six to six and one-half feet hight. These timbers were set upon sills and were capped with timbers about three and one-half feet long. These tunnel sets were placed about four feet apart, and the tops and sides thereof - were lagged or lined with two-inch plank. The mouth of the tunnel is on a level with the surface of the bed of the creek, but owing to the gradual rise of the ground to the west up and along the creek bed, the tunnel gained depth in its course through and along the gravel which forms the bed of Bingham Canyon. About 2050 feet of the tunnel was constructed before any appreciable quantity of water was encountered. At that point, (2000 feet from the mouth)' an incline extending from the [483]*483surface of tbe ground to the face of the tunnel was made, and the material thereafter taken from the tunnel as the work therein progressed was brought to the surface through the incline. When the tunnel was completed to a point 500 feet beyond the incline, the work on the face of the tunnel was temporarily suspended. In the 500 feet between the incline and the face of the tunnel considerable water was encountered and a box or flume made of redwood plank, was laid from the mouth of the tunnel to the incline to carry off this water. The dimensions of the inside of the box or flume was sixteen by sixteen inches. There seems to be some conflict in the evidence regarding the time when the flume was laid from the mouth of the tunnel to the incline. John Brooks, a witness called by defendants, testified that he was in the tunnel in the “early spring” of 1890 and cleaned out a portion of the box that was filled up with gravel and debris. Plaintiffs’ evidence tended to show that the tunnel was firmed from the mouth to the incline in 1893. The time, however, when this was done is not of controlling importance. Soon after the box was laid, every alternate set of timbers in the tunnel was removed and the gravel from the top' and sides of the tunnel was caved in on the box. In 1894 work extending the tunnel was resumed and a sufficient amount of water was developed therein to practically fill the flume. About this time a shaft known as the Butters shaft was sunk about 150 feet up the canyon from the present face of the tunnel. This shaft, which was sunk ten feet into the bedrock of Bingham Canyon, tapped the underground flow of water in question.

The shaft, as well as the extent of the underground flow of water at that point, is described by John Butters, one of the defendants’ principal witnesses, as follows:

“I think we sunk into bedrock in the neighborhood of ten feet. . . . When we struck bedrock the water there had a current. We ran one drift from the shaft to the west or westerly. That drift was on bedrock. . . . The water coming out that drift practically kept the dirt washed away from the face all the time. It cleared the dirt that we would break down. . . . The water came in with force and [484]*484caused a spray and spurting through the rock and gravel. The object of these drifts was placer mining purposes. In placer mining it is absolutely necessary to drain bedrock. ... We had a breast board to keep it from forcing the gravel into the workings and letting the work down on us.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
135 P. 106, 43 Utah 479, 1913 Utah LEXIS 88, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chandler-v-utah-copper-co-utah-1913.