Martin v. Platte Valley Sheep Co.

76 P. 571, 12 Wyo. 432, 1904 Wyo. LEXIS 11
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedApril 25, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 76 P. 571 (Martin v. Platte Valley Sheep Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martin v. Platte Valley Sheep Co., 76 P. 571, 12 Wyo. 432, 1904 Wyo. LEXIS 11 (Wyo. 1904).

Opinions

Potter, Justice.

This action was instituted November 23, 1900, by the Platte Valley Sheep Company, a corporation, against Price Martin, Winifred Davis and George Bennett to obtain a decree enjoining the defendants from driving, holding, grazing and feeding their cattle upon any of the lands of the plaintiff described in the petition, and from causing sáid cattle to consume and destroy the grasses and herbage growing on said lands, and also from threatening, intimidating or causing injury to the employes, agents or officers of the plaintiff.

The petition alleges that plaintiff is the owner in fee and in possession of about eight hundred acres of land therein described, and is the lessee and in possession of certain other described lands amounting to about six thousand acres. It otherwise appears that the lands claimed under [442]*442lease belong to and have been leased from- the State. It is further alleged that the plaintiff is engaged in the live stock business, the successful carrying on of which requires the undisturbed use and possession of the premises aforesaid; and that plaintiff’s custom is to reserve the herbage and grasses growing on said lands for the grazing and pasturing of its live stock thereon during the winter months-; and that loss or destruction of such herbage and grasses will result in serious loss to the plaintiff by the starvation of its live stock.

It is thereupon averred that .the defendants, and each of them, well knowing the lands aforesaid and the boundary lines and location thereof, and well knowing the facts as to the custom and necessities of the plaintiff, and wilfully and maliciously designing and intending to annoy, harrass and distress the plaintiff, and maliciously, intentionally and deliberately designing to deprive the plaintiff of the grasses and herbage growing on said lands, and to appropriate the same to their own use, have habitually and continuously, since on or about the 15th dajr of November, 1900, trespassed upon said lands by driving and herding one thousand head, more or less, of defendants’ cattle thereon, and causing them to eat and destroy such grasses and to interfere with, pollute and consume the water supply provided on said lands by plaintiff for the uses of its live stock; and that the defendants are without any title or claim or color of title to any of said lands; that defendants continue to so trespass and threaten to continue the same to the irreparable injury and loss of the plaintiff. It is further averred that the defendants have threatened the employes of plaintiff with bodily harm if they shall undertake to remove their cattle from such lands.

The defendants filed separate answers, each admitting the corporate character of plaintiff and plaintiff’s ownership and possession of the lands as set forth and described in the petition, and that plaintiff is engaged in the live stock business, and denying substantially all the other ma[443]*443terial averments of the petition. Upon the issues thus framed, the cause was tried and proceeded to final judgment, from which judgment the defendants have come to this court on error.

With the exception of two small tracts, the lands of plaintiff are located in Townships 30 north, Ranges 67 and 68 west, of the Sixth principal meridian. The greater body thereof comprises the eastern tier of sections in Township 30, Range 68, and embraces all of Sections 1 and 36, and the major portions of Sections 12, 13, 24 and 25, and also three quarters of Section 14. The lands in Range 67 embrace the greater part of Section 6, north half of Section 5, and certain parts of Sections 7, 18, 33, and small fractions of Sections 27, 28 and 34.

The evidence discloses that these lands are all contained within an enclosure constituting what the witnesses for plaintiff designate as the Platte Valley Company’s pasture, which pasture, however, includes in addition considerable government or public land. The government land in such enclosure equals at least in quantity the lands to which plaintiff lays claim, and it may slightly exceed that quantity. It appears without contradiction that, before the occurrence of the acts leading- up to this action, the plaintiff had constructed a fence enclosing its said lands in the two townships named, together with the government or public lands aforesaid. The exact location of the fence was not ascertained upon the trial; but enough appeared to show the location approximately. It appears that the North Platte River skirts the western part of Sections 25 and 36, arriving at those sections from a westerly or northwesterly direction. The fence is all constructed on the northern or eastern side of that river, and is so located that it takes .in several sections of government land on both the west and east side of plaintiff’s lands. On the west, in Range 68, it seems probable that there are three or four sections, if not more, of unappropriated public land of the United States, and 'in Range 67, on the east of plaintiff’s lands, [444]*444there is quite a body of public lands, ranging from three to five miles wide — east and west — and from three to five miles long — north and south. Interspersed, however, appear to be some small tracts claimed by plaintiff in Sections 27, 28, 33 and 34. Generally, at least, none of plaintiff’s lands are otherwise enclosed; that is to say, they are not separated by any enclosure or barrier from the government lands within the so-called pasture. All the running or living water within the pasture is located upon lands owned or leased by the plaintiff. Gates liave been provided at various places along the line of fence for ingress and egress; and it seems that the instructions of the company were to leave gates on every trail. There is at least one road, and probably others, running through portions of the pasture, and over parts of plaintiff’s lands, used habitually by the public without objection. The government land within the pasture, in Range 67, comprises quite a body’of contiguous sections, the approximate dimensions of which have already been given.

The defendants are ranchmen, each owning a herd of cattle, neither of them, we understand, having to exceed four or five hundred head. They own their cattle in sev-eralty, but are neighbors residing on the south or west side of the North Platte River on or in the vicinity of Section 35, Township 30, Range 68, and hence on the opposite side of the river to plaintiff’s lands. It appears, although there is no evidence of an agreement or precon-certed arrangement to that effect, that they have frequently rounded up their cattle together, and it is to be fairly understood that their cattle usually range together. Several instances occur in the testimony where they had been observed together working with or driving bunches or herdg of cattle, apparently composed of cattle belonging to each, or at least to more than one of the defendants. This fact, however, is perhaps not very material here, as no question of misjoinder of parties is suggested.

With the exception of two, or possibly three, instances, the testimony does not show that either of the defendants [445]*445actually drove or held cattle upon any of the lands of plaintiff for grazing or feeding, or by any overt control over the cattle caused them to eat the herbage or grasses upon plaintiff’s lands. No evidence was offered in support of the allegation that defendants’ cattle polluted the water on the lands, or consumed it, except that at times they drank of such water.

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Bluebook (online)
76 P. 571, 12 Wyo. 432, 1904 Wyo. LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martin-v-platte-valley-sheep-co-wyo-1904.