London Extension Mining Co. v. Ellis

134 F.2d 405, 1943 U.S. App. LEXIS 3577
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMarch 2, 1943
DocketNo. 2605
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 134 F.2d 405 (London Extension Mining Co. v. Ellis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
London Extension Mining Co. v. Ellis, 134 F.2d 405, 1943 U.S. App. LEXIS 3577 (10th Cir. 1943).

Opinion

PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge.

Orison Ellis, Ellen W. Ellis, Ida McGowan, and Buena V. Ellis, by Orison Ellis, her guardian and next friend, brought this action against the London Extension Mining Company,1 Chicago Mines Company,2 Harry C. Bishop, A. E. Moynahan, and R. W. Fraser to recover damages for alleged conversion of ores and minerals contained in a dump, commonly known as the American Dump.

[407]*407London and the Chicago Company are Colorado corporations. The latter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the former.

The American, Huron, Fraction, and Ibex mining claims are situated in the Alma Mining District, Park County, Colorado. London owns an undivided % interest in the American. The remaining undivided % interest is owned as follows: Orison Ellis, 94s, Ellen W. Ellis, 94s, Buena V. Ellis, 91s, Buena V. Ellis, 94s, Ida McGowan, 94s.

London owns an undivided % interest in the Huron, Fraction, and Ibex claims. The other undivided % interest therein is owned by the London Mines & Milling Company.

William A. Ellis, Jr., organized the Amer Mining Company3 under the laws of Colorado.

On August 20, 1930, Orison Ellis gave a lease to William A. Ellis, Jr., of an undivided 4As interest in the American. On December 7, 1931, Orison Ellis gave a lease to the Amer Company of an undivided Us interest in the American. On August 20, 1930, Aline Ellis, predecessor in interest to Buena V. Ellis, gave a lease to William A. Ellis, Jr., of an undivided 94s interest in the American. On August 20, 1930, Thomas A. Ellis, predecessor in interest to Ellen W. Ellis, gave a lease to William A. Ellis, Jr., of an undivided 94s interest in the American. On December 18, 1931, Thomas A. Ellis, predecessor in interest to Ellen W. Ellis, gave a lease to the Amer Company of an undivided 94s interest in the American. It will be observed that these leases covered only 9948 of the American and did not include the 94s interest owned by Ida McGowan and 94» owned by Buena V. Ellis. The leases ran from their respective dates to August 20, 1940. They granted to the lessees the right to prospect and mine the American and to extract ores therefrom and provided that the lessees should pay to the lessors as royalty 20% of the net smelter returns on all ores extracted and sold from the premises. The first-mentioned lease contained the following provision : “* * * that the lessee shall occupy and hold all side veins, spurs, feeders, cross lodes, parallel lodes or mineral deposits of any kind which may be discovered by the lessee within the leased premises as the property of the fee owners, according to their proportionate interest in the property ; the lessee agrees not to allow any person not in privity with fee owners, or parties hereto, to take or hold possession of said premises, or any part thereof.”

The remaining leases contained substantially the same provision. Each gave the lessee the right to assign the lease.

On September 9, 1930, London gave a mining lease to William A, Ellis, Jr., of an undivided % interest in the American.

On March 31, 1931, William A. Ellis, Jr., assigned to the Amer Company all of his interest in the leases running to him. On or about December 28, 1934, the Amer Company assigned all its interests in the leases to W. A. Ellis, Inc.

In 1931, the American was largely undeveloped. The cours'e of the apex of the vein could not then be accurately determined. It was uncertain whether the apex of the vein extended through the length of the American claim or through the length of the Fraction claim. The exlralateral rights, if any, accorded by Federal statute4 could not then be determined. To avoid controversy, a compromise agreement was entered into September 29, 1931, between the owners and lessees of all the claims, except Buena V. Ellis as to a 4/is interest and Ida McGowan as to a 94s interest in the American, wherein the mining rights and interests of the parties were fixed. Under this agreement a compromise area was described as comprising that portion of all the claims bounded on the east by the easterly side line of the American and on the north and south by the American end lines extended westerly through the Huron, Fraction, and Ibex claims. This area was divided into blocks of ground, known as A, B, C, D, and E, respectively. Under the agreement, it was provided that blocks A, B, and C should be mined by the Amer Company as lessee of the owners of the American who joined in the agreement, and that blocks D and E should be mined by the lessee of the owners of the Huron, Fraction, and Ibex claims. It contained provisions with respect to the division of the net proceeds from ores extracted from blocks C, D, and E. Under date oí August 4, 1933, a supplemental agreement was entered into, the principal purpose of which was to eliminate the provisions respecting division of the net proceeds from certain [408]*408of the blocks. The effect of these two agreements was to vest in the owners of the American, who. joined in the agreements, all right, title, and interest of the owners of the Huron, Fraction, and Ibex claims in and to the ores and minerals in blocks A, B, and C, subject to their leases held by the Amer Company, which was to operate the property thereunder and to vest in the owners of the Huron, Fraction, and Ibex all right, title, and interest of the owners of the American who joined in the agreement in and to the ores and minerals in blocks D and E.

The American Dump was created from waste material produced by the lessees of the American in the operation of the blocks assigned to the owners of the American, except Buena V. Ellis and Ida McGowan. All ores or other material removed in the operation of the Huron, Fraction, and Ibex by their owners or lessees from the blocks assigned to them were transported through other underground passages and did not enter the American Dump.

In the mining of a metalliferous vein, it is necessary to break down some of the adjacent couptry rock, which is thereafter segregated from the vein material by sorting, and placed in a dump at the surface as waste material. The American Dump was composed of such waste material and ore which the operating lessee regarded as of too-low grade to be profitably treated.

The American shaft through which all ore or waste material was hoisted was located near the southwesterly corner of the American. The surface of the ground which descended rather abruptly to the south from the American shaft did not readily permit the placing of this waste material in any substantial amount upon the surface of the American. The compromise settlement granted to' the owners of the American, and the Amer Company, as lessee of that claim, “the rights to dump mining waste, without stint, on and over the surface of the said Fraction Lode, both for the operations under the terms of this Agreement and for any future operation of the American lode.” The greater portion of the American Dump was located on the Fraction claim. A small portion thereof was located on the Huron claim. The latter claim was not covered by the agreement, but the parties treated it as embraced within the provision respecting the Fraction.

In addition to the waste material, material of too-low grade to be shipped to the smelter for treatment was placed in what was known as the mill ore dump located between two waste dumps in a little gulley that had been made by the formation of those two dumps.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
134 F.2d 405, 1943 U.S. App. LEXIS 3577, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/london-extension-mining-co-v-ellis-ca10-1943.