Himrod v. Ft. Pitt Min. & Mill. Co.

238 F. 746, 151 C.C.A. 596, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1386
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 11, 1916
DocketNo. 4686
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 238 F. 746 (Himrod v. Ft. Pitt Min. & Mill. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Himrod v. Ft. Pitt Min. & Mill. Co., 238 F. 746, 151 C.C.A. 596, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1386 (8th Cir. 1916).

Opinion

CARLAND, Circuit Judge.

This is an action by the Milling Company, as plaintiff, to recover from Himrod, as defendant, damages for [747]*747alleged trespasses upon the Oneida mining claim, Clear Creek county, Colo. The case has been here twice before. 202 Fed. 724, 121 C. C. A. 186; 220 Fed. 80, 135 C. C. A. 648. The plaintiff on the third trial, as it had on the previous trials, recovered a verdict. The defendant has again removed the case here, assigning error.

The errors assigned and argued by counsel for defendant, which we are authorized to consider, relate to the rulings of the trial court with reference to the following subjects: First, the right of the defendant by implication as a reasonable necessity to dump waste rock and débris from the Lamartine tunnel and mines onto the surface of the Oneida claim, in order to fully and properly enjoy the express rights granted, by the right of way deed of August 15, 1894; second, the statute of limitations; third, estoppel; fourth, measure of damages.

In the discussion of the alleged errors in reference to the first subject, it is necessary to first consider just what the defendant by his answer claimed was his right under his right of way deed. The only paragraphs which relate to the subject are the second and fifth of the third defense pleaded in the answer. They read as follows:

“(2) That the said Himrod and his co-owner, Amuletta H. Hudson, have continuously worked the said Lamartine mine through the said No. 2 level of the Oneida mine from th'e said 15th day of August, A. D. 1894, up to the date hereof, dumping the waste rock and material taken from said Oneida lode mining claim, and from the claims lying between the said Oneida claim and the said Lamartine group, upon the surface of the said Oneida lode mining claim.”
“(5) That in order to enable the said defendant and his said co-owner, Amu-letta H. Hudson, to extend the said Oneida No. 2 level as aforesaid, through the said Oneida lode mining claim, and th'ence through and into the Lamar-tine group of claims hereinbefore described, it was necessary that the said defendant and his said co-owner dump the waste rock and other material from said tunnel or adit upon the surface of the said Oneida lode mining claim.”

The language contained in paragraph 5 was the narrow ground upon which this court, at the time the case was last here, considered the question of the implied right of defendant under his right of way deed to dump waste rock and other material upon the Oneida claim. The opinion of the court gave illustrations and cited cases showing instances in which the implied right had been upheld; but these general expressions did not decide that the defendant had any other right than that of dumpage, for he had not claimed any other right. The court, in stating the question then under consideration, in the opinion (220 Fed 82, 135 C. C. A. 650) said:

“At tlie close of the evidence the court instructed the jury that the plaintiff in error had no right to deposit, upon the surface of the Oneida claim, rock and waste brought from the tunnel or mines beyond the Oneida claim, and the jury returned a verdict against the plaintiff in error. The instructions of the court, denying the plaintiff in error the right of dumpage on the surface of the Oneida claim, are claimed to be erroneous, because the grant of that right was implied in the deed, as it was reasonably essential to carry on his mining operations through the tunnel.”

This action was commenced March 28, 1908, and, although there have been three trials, the answer has remained the same in regard to the claim for the right of dumpage. The assignments of error re[748]*748lating to the subject now under discussion complain that the trial court limited the inquiry as to the implied rights of the defendant under the right of way deed to the question of the necessity of the defendant to dump on the surface of the Oneida claim waste rock and other material simply for the purpose of disposing of the waste, whereas the defendant claimed that he not only had the right to have the question of his implied right to deposit waste rock and other material upon the Oneida claim merely as dumpage submitted to the jury, but that he also had the right to have submitted to them and to introduce evidence' relating thereto, as to his right to deposit waste rock and other material at*a point near the mouth of the tunnel for the storage of fuel and timbers, and for the turning of the delivery teams.

[1] We are of the.opinion, after a careful examination of the record, that the assignments of error upon this subject are without merit, because the pleadings did not raise the question of the implied right in the defendant to establish yardage facilities on the Oneida claim, as we have heretofore shown in quoting from defendant’s answer. We think that, if defendant claimed the right to deposit the waste rock and other material upon the Oneida claim for any other purpose than dump-age, he should have so pleaded. A trial court is not required to submit to the jury, or to receive evidence upon, issues not made by the pleadings. Nevada Co. v. Farnsworth, 102 Fed. 573, 42 C. C. A. 504; Frizzell v. Omaha St. Ry. Co., 124 Fed. 176, 59 C. C. A. 382; Grady v. St. Louis Transit Co., 169 Fed. 400, 94 C. C. A. 622.

[2] The trial court as to the implied right of the defendant charged the jury as follows:

“Now, the law does not imply that hind of a right in the party who got the contract — in the defendant and his mother — simply because it might be convenient for them, to dump on th'e Oneida. Such a right can only; be implied by the law, in considering all the circumstances and the situation in hand, when the right is a necessity to the party who claims it; that is, the situation is such that he could not obtain, without unreasonable labor and expense, any other place or way to dump this material. He is required, not only to show that it would be convenient and beneficial to him to dump it on the Oneida, but, in order to sustain the right as an implication that the law gives to him, he must go further, as I have already said to you, and show that he cannot, at an outlay of an amount that is within reason', obtain dumping privileges elsewhere in the operation of the tunnel. And the law leaves to you to determine, from all the facts surrounding the situation at the time the contract was made, the purpose for which it was made, the condition and situation with which it dealt, to determine whether or not the defendant by necessity was given that right under the contract; and for the purpose of determining that question in this case you may take into consideration the nature of th'e surface of the ground where the right claimed to deposit rock and waste was situate, its adaptability and value for other uses, the accessibility of other places at convenient reach' from the mouth of the tunnel where dumping privileges could be had, and the reasonable cost of acquiring and using such other place. And if you find from the evidence in this case, considering the situation of the premises when the contract was made, the purpose for which it was made, that the defendant could obtain and use at a reasonable expense other places for dumping ground which were easily accessible from the mouth of the tunnel, then the law would not imply any right given by the contract to th'e defendant to dump on the Oneida claim.

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Bluebook (online)
238 F. 746, 151 C.C.A. 596, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 1386, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/himrod-v-ft-pitt-min-mill-co-ca8-1916.