Copper Globe Mining Co. v. Allman

64 P. 1019, 23 Utah 410, 1901 Utah LEXIS 30
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 17, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 64 P. 1019 (Copper Globe Mining Co. v. Allman) 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
Copper Globe Mining Co. v. Allman, 64 P. 1019, 23 Utah 410, 1901 Utah LEXIS 30 (Utah 1901).

Opinion

BASKIN, J.

The complaint alleges that the plaintiff is the owner (subject to the paramount title of the United States) and in possession and entitled to the possession of the Copper Globe and the Copper Globe No. 1, No, 2, No. 3 and No. 4 mining claims, situate in Emery county, Utah.; that the defendants, who are the appellants, claim an interest in said mining claims adverse to the plaintiff, but that such claim is without right. The relief prayed for is that the defendants be required to set forth the nature of their claim and that it be adjudged that the defendants have no interest in the said mining claims of the plaintiff, and that they be forever enjoined from asserting any right thereto. The answer, after denying all of the allegations of the complaint, not specifically admitted, alleges that the defendants are the owners (subject to the paramount title of the United States), in poossession, and entitled to the possession of (the Norma No. 2 mining claim, which is identical with the Copper Globe No. 4 mining claim, [414]*414as the same is described in the complaint; that the acts of the defendants in developing their said mining claim, and no other, constitute the grievances of which the plaintiff complains ; that the mining claim known as the Copper Globe No. 4, is fictitious, and has no existence whatever, and the plaintiff’s claim thereto is a cloud upon the said Norma No. 2 mining claim. Defendants pray that their title to said mining claim, Norma'No. 2, may be confirmed and quieted, and that plaintiff be enjoined from asserting any claim thereto.

The trial court found that, on the sixth day of February, 1899, the grantors of the plaintiff located the five mining claims described in the complaint, “by the erection of a monument of stone at the place of discovery conforming to law and posted in and upon such monument, on each of said claims, their notice of location containing the name of the lode and claim, the names of the locators, the date of location, the number of lineal feet claimed in length along the course of the vein each way from the discovery monument, with the width on each side of the center of the vein and a description of the claim located by reference to natural objects and permanent monuments in such manner as to identify the sama .... That on the twenty-first day of March, the grantors of the plaintiff marked the boundaries of each of said lodes or claims by establishing in each comer thereof and in the center line of each claim, a monument as required by law, and marked upon each of such monuments the name of the claim, and corner, angle, and place that it represented.

“That the plaintiff is now the owner of the above described mineral lands, subject only to the paramount title of the United States therein, and the plaintiff is entitled to the exclusive possession of all of the above described territory.
“That at the time said defendants and their grantors entered upon said ground and attempted to locate it as Norma [415]*415No. 2, it was not public mineral land open to exploration and location, but at said time plaintiff’s grantors beld and owned tbe same under a valid location as Copper Globe No. 4, and the attempted location of the Norma No. 2, by tbe defendants and tbeir grantors was of no effect whatever as far as it included any of tbe ground witbin tbe boundaries of Copper Globe No. 4, as above described.
“That defendants claim title in and to said Copper Globe No. 4, adverse to plaintiff, but said claim is without foundation or right’ and the plaintiff is tbe owner and entitled to tbe exclusive possession of all of tbe above described mining claims and lodes, known as tbe Copper Globe, tbe Copper Globe No. 1, tbe Copper Globe No. 2, the Copper Globe No. 3, tbe Copper Globe No. 4, as above described.”

Each of these findings of fact is assigned as error by tbe appellants, and tbe substance of tbe objections thereto is that neither of them is justified by tbe evidence.

It appears from the answer, and tbe -court so found, that-tbe defendants make no claim to any of tbe mining property described in tbe complaint except tbe Copper Globe No. 4. Tbe defendants’ claim to that property is based on a location alleged to have been made on February 15, 1899, of tbe Norma No. 2. The plaintiff’s claim to tbe Copper Globe No. 4, is based upon a location of tbe same, alleged to have been made February 6, 1899, tbe notice of tbe location of which, as recorded in tbe records of Emery county on tbe ninth day of February, 1899, is, as follows:

Notice oe LocatioN.
“Notice is hereby given, That tbe undersigned, having complied with tbe requirements of section 2324 of tbe Revised Statutes of tbe United States and tbe local laws, customs and regulations of this district, have located fifteen hundred feet [416]*416in length by six hundred feet in width, on this, the Copper Globe lode, vein or deposit, bearing gold, silver and other precious metals, situated in No. — District mining district, Emery county, Utah, the location being described and marked on the ground as follows, to-wit:
“Beginning at a stone monument about four feet high, where this notice is posted; thence south 300 feet to post No. 1; thence west 300 feet to post No. 2; thence north 1,500 feet to post No. 3; thence east 600 feet to post No. 4; thence south 1,500 feet to post No. 5; thence west 300 feet to post No. 1; thence north 300 feet to place of beginning. The -above described monument and claim is situated about two miles south of the crossing of Devil Canyon, and about 25 miles southeast of Ferron.
“The mining claim above described shall be known as the Copper Globe No. 4.
“Located this.sixth day of February, 1899.
“Names of Locators: John H. Barton; A. A. Noon; T. M. Allman; St. Y. LeSieur; William A. Phillips.”

and upon a regular claim of conveyances from the original locators to it.

The plaintiff does not claim that either it or its grantors have done any work on the Copper Globe No. 4 since its location, or that anything has been done respecting the same, except that on the day of its alleged location a stone monument about four feet high was erected within its boundaries and a notice of location placed thereon, and that afterwards, on the twenty-first day of March, 1899, the same was staked. It does not appear that the plaintiff has ever been in the actual possession of said mining claim.

The defendants, after locating the Norma No. 2, did considerable development work on the same, but at points many [417]*417feet distant from the stone monument claimed to have been so erected on the Copper Globe No. 4, and were so engaged at the time of the institution of this action.

As the defendants were in actual possession at and before the institution of this suit, under a location, the validity of which, as appears from the record, was attacked by the plaintiff, only, on the ground of the previous location of the Copper Globe No. 4, the burden was upon the plaintiff to show that the previous location was made and perfected in compliance not only with the laws of the United States, but also with such provisions of the statutes of the State relating to the location of mining claims as are not inconsistent with the United States statutes. Van Zandt v. Argentine Min. Co., 2 McCrary 159; Bryan v. McCaig, 10 Colo. 309; Sweet v.

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Bluebook (online)
64 P. 1019, 23 Utah 410, 1901 Utah LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/copper-globe-mining-co-v-allman-utah-1901.