Noyes v. Clifford

94 P. 842, 37 Mont. 138, 1908 Mont. LEXIS 36
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 28, 1908
DocketNo. 2,502
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 94 P. 842 (Noyes v. Clifford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Noyes v. Clifford, 94 P. 842, 37 Mont. 138, 1908 Mont. LEXIS 36 (Mo. 1908).

Opinion

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BRANTLY

delivered the opinion of the court.

Action in ejectment. The plaintiffs claim title in fee and right to the possession of a tract of placer mining ground situate in Silver Bow county, and described as “embracing the S. y2 of the N. W. %, the S. W. 14 of the N. E. 14, and fractional lot No. 3, of section 24, township 3 N. of range 8 W., containing 153.49 acres, excepting and excluding that portion of the-surface ground of said premises, which is embraced by lots No. 154 and 208 as represented on the plat of the survey by Thomas-F. Baker for the claim of Lewis Stettheimer upon the Frankie lode.”

The plaintiff Noyes and others applied to the United States for a patent to these premises on July 18, 1879, and a patent was issued to them on April 15, 1881. The plaintiffs other than Noyes obtained their respective interests by mesne conveyances from the patentees. The defendant claims that at the date of the application for the patent there was known to exist in the ground covered by plaintiffs’ claim a vein of quartz, in place bearing gold and silver; that, since no claim was made-thereto by plaintiffs in their application, it was excluded from the patent, together with a strip of land twenty-five feet in width on either side thereof; that to this extent the premises claimed by the plaintiffs remained and continued to be, not[141]*141withstanding the issuance of the patent, unoccupied public mineral land of the United States, open to exploration by any citizen of the United States; that on May 20, 1890, the defendant, together with one Tatum and one Brennen, all being citizens of the United States, entered thereon, and, having made a discovery of the vein, located the same as the Ambrose quartz lode claim in compliance with the laws of the United States and the state of Montana; and that thereafter the defendant acquired the interests of his associates. The Ambrose location as made covers an area 1,500 feet in length by 600 feet in width, the locators at the time it was made supposing it was so laid along the vein or lode that the parallel end lines would be intersected by it. It was subsequently ascertained that, though the apex of the vein does intersect the east end line, it crosses the north side line, and passes out of the claim at a point 1,017.5 feet west of the east end line, so that the area in dispute, excluding all the area covered by the location except the vein and twenty-five feet on either side, may be roughly described as a strip 1,017.5 feet in length by fifty feet in width, extending in a northwesterly direction from the east boundary of plaintiffs’ premises.

The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the defendant. Plaintiffs have appealed from an order denying their motion for a new trial. It is alleged that the court erred to the prejudice of plaintiffs in admitting certain evidence and in charging the jury. It is also contended that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict.

1. The plaintiffs, having introduced in evidence the original patent from the United States and the record of deeds from the patentees to plaintiffs other than Noyes, rested. Thereupon P. T. Brennen, one of the locators of the Ambrose lode claim, was sworn and examined as to the facts touching the character of the discovery made and the steps taken to complete the location. To all this evidence objection was made that it was not material or competent for any purpose until it had been shown that the vein or lode was known to exist at the date of the application [142]*142for the patent. The objection was properly overruled. It went only to the order of proof. There was, in fact, no real controversy but that the Ambrose location was valid at the time it was made, provided the vein was open to location; and this part of the evidence, necessarily a part of defendant’s case as made by his answer, was introduced in order to open the way to the main controversy in the case, namely, whether the vein or lode was known to exist at the date of the application for patent, within the meaning of the statute. (IT. S. Eev. Stats., see. 2333 [U. S. Comp. Stats. 1901, p. 1433].) Without proof of location, thus showing his connection with the paramount title of the United States, the defendant had the right to question the prima facie title of plaintiffs as exhibited by their patent by showing that the vein was known to exist at the time the application for the patent was made, and thus justify his apparent intrusion upon plaintiffs’ premises. (Reynolds v. Iron Silver Min. Co., 116 U. S. 687, 6 Sup. Ct. 601, 29 L. Ed. 774.) If the lode or vein was excepted by the terms of the patent, it, together with twenty-five feet on either side thereof, was open to exploitation and location by any citizen of the United. States; and, for the purpose of such exploitation, the defendant was entitled to enter into possession of it. The defendant was-not obliged to pursue this course, however. He could first show,, as he did, that he had taken the steps necessary to acquire the inchoate title, and then proceed with the evidence tending to support it by showing that the vein was open to location. In any event, the order of proof is always within the discretionary control of the court, and, unless there appears to have been an abuse of discretion by which the objecting party has suffered, prejudice, error cannot be alleged, though the logical order has-not been pursued. (Starr v. Gregory Con. Min. Co., 6 Mont. 485, 13 Pac. 195; Bardwell v. Anderson, 13 Mont. 87, 32 Pac. 285.)

Like objections were made to the testimony of other witnesses,, as to the character, extent and value of the vein as it appeared at the time the defendant’s location was made. There was no.[143]*143substantial ground for any of them. The inquiry was not only whether a vein was known to exist at the date of the applica-tion for the patent, but, also, whether it was such a vein as would justify a location of it and the expenditure of labor and money for the purpose of developing and utilizing its contents. To aid the latter inquiry evidence of its character, extent and the value of its contents at any time, either before or after the-beginning of patent proceedings, was competent; for the vein-does not fall within the exception provided for in the statute, unless it be shown to be a known vein at that*time and at the-same time that it contained valuable minerals in such quantities and of such value as to justify an effort to utilize it. Evidence of what it contained at the date of the location was evidence of' what it contained at the time application for patent was made.

Objection was made to the introduction of the record of affidavits of different persons, showing that defendant had caused' annual' representation work to be done on the Ambrose claim from year to year after the location was made, the ground of' objection being that the evidence was immaterial and incompetent, in that it did not appear from the affidavits that the work had been done within the limits of the areas which the defendant could lawfully claim under his location, namely, a strip fifty feet in width along the vein. Upon the statement of' counsel for defendant that it would be shown by testimony, to-be introduced thereafter, that this work had all been done upon the vein itself, the objection was overruled. Subsequently it was made to appear from the testimony of the witness Terrell, who-had done most of the work, that all that he did was done at different points along the vein itself.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
94 P. 842, 37 Mont. 138, 1908 Mont. LEXIS 36, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/noyes-v-clifford-mont-1908.