Marsh Mining Co. v. Inland Empire Mining & Milling Co.

165 P. 1128, 30 Idaho 1, 1916 Ida. LEXIS 128
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 18, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 165 P. 1128 (Marsh Mining Co. v. Inland Empire Mining & Milling Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marsh Mining Co. v. Inland Empire Mining & Milling Co., 165 P. 1128, 30 Idaho 1, 1916 Ida. LEXIS 128 (Idaho 1916).

Opinions

MORGAN, J.

Respondent is the owner of certain mining claims known as the Marsh Group, situated in Leland Mining District, Shoshone county. Appellant is the owner of -a pat[6]*6ented mining claim known as the Never Sweat Lode, which contains between eleven and twelve acres. The land embraced within the Marsh Group and all that embraced within the Never Sweat, except a small portion which is comparatively level, lying along a stream called Canyon Creek, is situated upon steep mountainsides. This action was commenced by respondent in order to acquire for mining purposes, under the power of eminent domain, the surface of approximately three and one-third acres of appellant’s ground including all the level portion above mentioned. The level land sought to be condemned is occupied by certain persons who claim adversely to appellant by reason of occupancy, or otherwise, and who were made defendants in the action.

The record discloses that while the respondent has never paid a dividend, it has done a great deal of development work and has mined from its claims and marketed about $550,000 worth of ore; that it has discovered in said claims a valuable deposit of mineral; that in the development of its property its present facilities have become and are inadequate to meet its requirements, and that by reason of the topography of its ground it needs the level portion of appellant’s land in order to facilitate its mining operations.

It is alleged in the complaint that respondent needs this land for the purposes of constructing a tramway thereon, for terminal facilities for tracks, ground for ore-bins, machine-shops, ore-sorting plant, sheds for timber, stull-yards, land for dumping waste rock and for other necessary mining uses and purposes in connection with the operation and development of its property.

The trial resulted in a judgment decreeing that the use to which respondent desires to put the land is a public use and awarding to it the right to condemn and appropriate said land under the power of eminent domain. This appeal is from the judgment.

Appellant contends that the acquisition of the property is a matter of convenience and economy, only, on the part of respondent, and that no such necessity exists therefor as warrants the exercise of the right of eminent domain. While the [7]*7record does not disclose that an absolute necessity exists for taking the land by respondent and does disclose that it may operate, to some extent, without it, we are convinced from a careful examination of the evidence that for the convenient and economical development and operation of its mine the use of the land is needed and that a reasonable necessity exists for the taking. If a reasonable, although not an absolute, necessity exists to take property for a public use, it is sufficient. (City of Spokane v. Merriam, 80 Wash. 222, 141 Pac. 358; State ex rel. Skamania Boom Co. v. Superior Court, 47 Wash. 166, 91 Pac. 637; Samish River Boom Co. v. Union Boom Co., 32 Wash. 586, 73 Pac. 670; Bennett v. City of Marion, 106 Iowa, 628, 76 N. W. 844; Cincinnati etc. Ry. Co. v. City of Anderson, 139 Ind. 490, 47 Am. St. 285, 38 N. E. 167; Mobile & G. R. Co. v. Alabama etc. Ry. Co., 87 Ala. 501, 6 So. 404; Butte A. & P. Ry. Co. v. Montana Union Ry. Co., 16 Mont. 504, 50 Am. St. 508, 41 Pac. 232, 31 L. R. A. 298.)

It appears that appellant and its predecessors have expended about $20,000 in the development of the Never Sweat claim; that while ore in paying quantities has never been discovered, some ore has been found and that appellant is still prospecting, in good faith, and expending its money in an effort to develop a mine, and also that if commercial ore in paying quantities is discovered in the Never Sweat claim, all the level ground sought to be condemned will be necessary to its owner in its development and operation for the same use to which respondent seeks to appropriate it. It further appears that the predecessors in interest of appellant, some years ago, used a portion of the level land in question for the purpose of piling or storing some mining timbers upon it and also dumped thereon a small quantity of waste rock, and that no use has been made of it since for mining purposes. That at about the time this use was made of the land an injunction, which is still in force, was served upon appellant’s predecessors preventing such use of it, and that there is litigation now pending between appellant and others which has grown out of adverse claims to surface lights to the land.

[8]*8Appellant contends, and the record discloses, that the property is owned and held by it for the same public use and purpose to which respondent desires to put it, to .wit, mining purposes, and it insists that if it is deprived of this land, the development of the remaining portion of its property may as well cease, since without the level land the successful operation of its mine will be impossible.

Property devoted to, or held for, a public use is subject to the power of eminent domain if the right to so take it is given by constitutional provision or legislative enactment, in express terms or by clear implication, but it cannot be taken to be used in the same manner and for the same purpose to which it is already being applied or for which it is, in good faith, being held, if by so doing that purpose will be defeated. (Lewis on Eminent Domain, 3d ed., sec. 440; State ex rel. Skamania Boom Co. v. Superior Court, supra; Samish River Boom Co. v. Union Boom Co., supra; State ex rel. Harbor Boom Co. v. Superior Court, 65 Wash. 129, 117 Pac. 755; Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Kansas City M. & O. R. Co., 67 Kan. 569, 70 Pac. 939, 73 Pac. 899; Southern Pac. R. Co. v. Southern Cal. Ry. Co., 111 Cal. 221, 43 Pac. 602; Cary Library v. Bliss, 151 Mass. 364, 25 N. E. 92, 7 L. R. A. 765; Northwestern Tel. Exch. Co. v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 76 Minn. 334, 79 N. W. 315; Oregon Short Line R. Co. v. Postal Tel. Cable Co., 111 Fed. 842, 49 C. C. A. 663; Little Miami & C. & X. R. Co. v. City of Dayton, 23 Ohio St. 510.)

An examination of the constitution and statutes of Idaho discloses that authority has not been granted, either expressly or by implication, to take, under the power of eminent domain, property already devoted to mining purposes for some of the uses to which it is sought to put the property of appellant. See. 14, art. 1 of the constitution provides: ‘ ‘ The .necessary use of lands .... for the drainage of mines, or the working thereof, by means of roads, railroads, tramways, cuts, tunnels, shafts, hoisting works, dumps or other necessary means to their complete development .... is hereby declared to be a public use, and subject to the regulation and control of the state.”

[9]*9It will be observed that this section of the constitution provides that the necessary use of lands for certain mining purposes is a public use and is subject to the regulation and control of the state, but it must be remembered that the tract here in controversy is now held by appellant for those purposes, and the constitution makes no reference to the taking of property held for, or devoted to, a public use for the purpose of applying it to the same or any other use.

The supreme court of Massachusetts, in Boston & Maine R. R. v. Lowell & Lawrence R. Co., 124 Mass.

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Bluebook (online)
165 P. 1128, 30 Idaho 1, 1916 Ida. LEXIS 128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marsh-mining-co-v-inland-empire-mining-milling-co-idaho-1916.