Jackson v. Brown

241 P. 59, 116 Or. 343, 1925 Ore. LEXIS 143
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 24, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 241 P. 59 (Jackson v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson v. Brown, 241 P. 59, 116 Or. 343, 1925 Ore. LEXIS 143 (Or. 1925).

Opinion

COSHOW, J.

Defendants and appellants, Brown and Pittsburgh-Oregon Mining Company, assign as error the overruling of the demurrer to plaintiff’s complaint. The demurrer was based on the ground that the complaint did not state sufficient facts. The notice of the lien covers eight different mining locations. The defendants claim that some of the locations were made after a part of the work was done; that one of the locations was a placer deposit detached from the other locations and that two other lode locations were also detached from the other five locations. It is alleged in the complaint:

“That all of said work and labor so performed was in and upon said property as set out in Exhibit ‘A’ hereof and whether performed- on one or all of said *346 mining claims was for the benefit of all said claims which are contiguous to one another * * .”

Exhibit “A” referred to is a complete description of the eight locations constituting the mining claim or mine sought to be embraced in the lien. It appears, in as far as the demurrer is concerned, that the several claims described belonged to the same owner, and that the work done by the plaintiff was for the benefit of all the claims. It is also alleged in the complaint in this connection that the work was done upon said mirting claim or group of mining claims known as Golden Wedge Mine. The complaint also alleges that the defendant Brown was in possession of all of said mining property described in said exhibit “A,” and developed and operated the same as one quartz mine as the owner thereof and entitled to the possession thereof. The complaint does not give the date upon which the locations of the several claims were made, nor when the location notices were recorded except in one instance. In that instance the claim was located before any of the work was done. Consequently it does not appear from the complaint that any of the work was done prior to the location of any of the claims. The court properly overruled the demurrer.

The defendants and appellants contend that if one includes in a lien property that is not lienable, or upon which the claimant is not entitled to a lien, that such lien is invalid. The court made the following finding at the request of the appellants:

“The Court finds that while there are nine mining claims covered, described and set forth in Plaintiff’s lien sought to be foreclosed in this suit, that three of the said claims, to-wit: the Gold Wedge No. 1, the Hazy West Claim and the Placer Claim, are not lienable, and should therefore be eliminated from the *347 Decree herein for the reason that the same are not adjoining or contiguous to the other claims set forth in Exhibit ‘A.’ ”

We believe that the fact that plaintiff claimed more land than he was entitled to does not vitiate his lien.

“A lien is not invalid because the certificate claims too much land, where it appears that the claimant did not intend to claim more land than he was entitled to, and, on discovering’ the error, filed an informal release of the land not covered by nor appurtenant to the building, and the owner has not been injured, nor have the rights of others been affected.” 2 Jones on Liens (2 ed.), 652, § 1423.

So far as the record discloses the plaintiff acted in good faith in filing his lien. His complaint alleges that the defendant Brown was operating and mining all of- said mining claims as locations as one quartz mine as the owner of and entitled to the possession thereof. The notice of lien alleges that the plaintiff performed certain work and labor as a miner upon that certain mine lying and being situated in Jackson County, Oregon, near Gold Hill, known as the Golden Wedge Mine, as more clearly appears from a definite and complete description of said property hereunto attached, made a part thereof and marked exhibit “A.” This is the same exhibit as referred and attached to the complaint and contains a description of all of said locations. The lien also states that the plaintiff claims a lien upon said mining property herein described as exhibit “A.” The theory of the plaintiff is that all of the locations constituted but one mine and the evidence supports this theory. The defendants introduced no evidence, but relied wholly on technical defenses. There is no pretense that the plaintiff and his assignor failed in any particular to perform the work they were employed to do by the *348 defendant Brown. After plaintiff was employed the defendant Brown caused the defendant corporation, Pittsburgh-Oregon Mining Company, to be organized and the mining property described in exhibit “A” was conveyed to the corporation by the said Brown. There is not any pretense that either, of the appellants was in any way injured or misled by incorporating in the lien notices and complaint the description of the mining locations held by the Circuit Court to be nonlienable. Section 10219, Or. L., is authority for claiming a lien on a group of mining claims or locations. So much of that section as is pertinent reads as follows:

“When two or more mines, lodes, mining claims or deposits are owned or claimed by the same person or persons, and worked through a common shaft or tunnel, incline, adit, drift or other excavation, or over one tram, or at one mill or other reduction works, then all the mines, lodes, mining claims or deposits so worked, and all roads, tramways, trail, flumes, ditches or pipe lines, buildings, structure or superstructures used or owned in connection therewith, shall, for the purpose of this' a'ct, be deemed one mine; ’ ’

Under this statute it was not necessary for the different claims or locations to be contiguous in order to be subject to one lien. All that is required is that the claims should be owned by the same person or persons and be worked as one mine. It does not matter whether the work is done through a common shaft or tunnel, as any other excavation or common way of working any part of the mine for the benefit of the whole thereof entitles the laborer to a lien on the whole. It will be noticed that the lien is given upon a mine for a road which is necessary to the convenient working of the mine or the transportation of *349 supplies thereto or products therefrom. We are not called on to pass upon the ruling of the Circuit Court eliminating the three locations from the decree because the plaintiff has not appealed. The liens of plaintiff were not vitiated, however, because they included those three locations.

It is insisted by the appellants that a part of the work done by plaintiff and his assignor was what the statute terms “location” work; that such work is not mining and does not therefore entitle a laborer to a lien upon the mine. A sufficient answer to this contention is found in Williams v. Toledo Coal Co., 25 Or. 426 (36 Pac. 159, 42 Am. St. Rep. 799), where the court, speaking through Mr. Justice Moore, says in page 431 of the official Report:

“Mining and prospecting are generic terms, which include the whole mode of obtaining metals and minerals, and the lien is given to every person who shall do work or furnish materials either in mining or prospecting.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
241 P. 59, 116 Or. 343, 1925 Ore. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-v-brown-or-1925.