Morgan v. Barrett

153 P. 449, 17 Ariz. 376, 1915 Ariz. LEXIS 137
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 11, 1915
DocketCivil No. 1442
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 153 P. 449 (Morgan v. Barrett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morgan v. Barrett, 153 P. 449, 17 Ariz. 376, 1915 Ariz. LEXIS 137 (Ark. 1915).

Opinion

ROSS, C. J.

This action, known as an adverse suit, was brought in the superior court of Cochise county by the appellee against the appellants, to determine the right of possession to ■ certain mining property. The mining claims sought to be patented by the appellants are known as the Good Hope and Silver Chief lodes. The mining claim of the [377]*377appellee, known as the Mohawk, the complaint shows, is largely covered by the Silver Chief and Good Hope. The appellants demurred to the complaint; pleaded res adjudicóla and the statute of limitation. The overruling of the demurrer is assigned as error by the appellants, but since this assignment is not argued in their brief, we will treat it as waived.

The defense of res adjudícala is alleged in the answer, in substance, as follows: That in the year 1901 the appellee instituted an action in the district court for Cochise county against one Burt Dunlap and John Miller, the grantors of the appellants, to quiet title to the identical mining ground embraced within the Good Hope and Silver Chief mining claims, and that thereafter, on the seventh day of June, 1902, the said cause being at issue, proofs were taken on both sides in open court, and, being submitted to the court- for its decision and judgment, on said day decree was duly made and entered in said cause, adjudging and decreeing that the appellee had no right, title, interest, claim or demand whatsoever in or to any of said mining ground, and quieting the title of the said Burt Dunlap, grantor of appellants, to said mining ground as against appellee and all persons claiming under him, and that the appellee take nothing by his said action. That said judgment so entered became final. It is alleged that the appellee herein is the same party who was the plaintiff in said cause above referred to; that the appellants herein are the grantees of the said Burt Dunlap and John Miller, defendants in said action; and that the mining ground which is the subject matter of this action is the identical mining ground which was the subject of the suit above referred to. Under the plea of the statute of limitation the 5-year and the 10-year statutes are pleaded.

A jury was had, to which’was submitted, by both the appellants, and the appellee, certain questions of fact. The answers of the jury to the controverted questions of fact were construed by the court as entitling the appellee to judgment, and he accordingly found certain uncontroverted facts which, together with the findings of the jury, he considered sufficient bases for a judgment in favor of appellee, which was duly entered.

It is the plea of res adjudícala that appellants principally relied upon in the lower court. They now urge that the trial [378]*378court committed serious error in not sustaining them on that contention. Although the evidence is not in the record, we learn from the pleadings and from the findings of the jury and from the judgment-roll of the case of Barrett v. Dunlap et al., which is in the record, that the precise piece of ground covered by the Mohawk mining claim was originally located by the appellee in 1897 as the Mountain King, and was thence on, until about the year 1907, known as the Mountain King mining claim. In the latter year, appellee or his grantee failing to do the annual representation work, the same became subject to relocation, and was on January I, 1908, located under the name of the Mohawk mining claim by Michael Coffey, who thereafter sold and conveyed the same to the appellee. It was to quiet the title to the Mountain King (identical with the Mohawk) that appellee instituted the suit in 1901 against Burt Dunlap et al. Looking to the record of that case to see if the plea of res adjudicata should be sustained, we find: That the appellee here (who was the plaintiff therein) claimed in his complaint to be the owner and in possession of the Mountain Queen, Mountain Maid and Mountain King mining claims, and that the defendants Dunlap and Miller had committed a trespass on said mining claims by entering thereon and digging, mining and excavating therefrom and converting to their own use some of the ores from said mining claims; that Dunlap and Miller asserted an interest and estate therein adverse to the title of plaintiff. The prayer was that his title be quieted, that an injunction bo issued, restraining the defendants from trespassing upon said mining claims and from mining and extracting-therefrom any of the ores, and for an accounting. The said Dunlap, one of the grantors of the appellants, answering said complaint, denied the allegations of trespass, and alleged that he was the owner of an undivided one-fourth interest in the Mountain King, Mountain Queen and Mountain Maid mining claims by purchase and 'by mesne conveyances. He further alleged in his answer that he was “the owner, in possession of and entitled to the possession of an undivided one-half interest in the Good Hope mining claim; . . . said mining claim being located in a westerly direction from the Mountain King mining claim and adjoining the said Mountain King mining claim [379]*379on what is known as the southerly or southwesterly end of said Mountain King claim.”

He alleged like ownership in the Silver Chief mining claim and described its location as follows:

“Said Silver Chief mining claim being located in a westerly direction from and adjoining said Mountain King mining claim on what is known as the southerly or southwesterly end of said Mountain King mining claim, and lying parallel with the above Good Hope mine and to the north side of said Good Hope mine.”

It is true that defendant Dunlap closed his answer with the prayer that “his right and title to said Good Hope and Silver Chief claims, as alleged, be adjudged perfect,” but in the body of the answer he does not allege any adverse claim to said mines by the appellee, and his answer, by no reasonable construction, could be converted into an action to quiet title. The other defendant, Miller, made no appearance. The court made findings of fact in that case to the effect that defendant Dunlap was the owner and in possession of an undivided one-half interest in the Silver Chief and Good Hope mining claims; that said mining claims were legally and properly located; and that the annual assessment work for the years 1900 and 1901 had been performed. The judgment of the court was that defendant’s title to the Silver Chief and the Good Hope mining claims be quieted as against the plaintiff, and that the plaintiff take nothing by this action.

There was no finding of any conflict between the Silver Chief and Good Hope, and the Mountain King. Indeed, the answer filed by Dunlap, one of the grantors of the appellants, disclaimed any conflict, for it expressly described the Silver Chief and Good Hope as “adjoining said Mountain King mining claim on what is known as the southerly or southwesterly end of said Mountain King claim.'”

Upon the filing of this answer there was no issue of conflict between the owners of the Silver Chief and Good Hope and the owner of the Mountain King, for, according to the answer, the Silver Chief and Good Hope did not overlap or cover the Mountain King, but only extended to its exterior boundary, so that the northerly or northwesterly end of the Silver Chief and Good Hope mining claims become tied to the southerly or southwesterly end of the said Mountain King [380]*380mining claim.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 P. 449, 17 Ariz. 376, 1915 Ariz. LEXIS 137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morgan-v-barrett-ariz-1915.