United States v. United Verde Copper Co.

196 U.S. 207, 25 S. Ct. 222, 49 L. Ed. 449, 1905 U.S. LEXIS 894
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedJanuary 9, 1905
Docket68
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 196 U.S. 207 (United States v. United Verde Copper Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. United Verde Copper Co., 196 U.S. 207, 25 S. Ct. 222, 49 L. Ed. 449, 1905 U.S. LEXIS 894 (1905).

Opinions

Mr. Justice-McKenna

delivered the opinion of the court.

Action brought by the United' States against the appellee, which we shall call the Copper Company, for the sum of $38',976:75, the value of timber cut and removed from certain unsurveyed mineral land in the Territory of Arizona.

The timber-or wood was alleged to have been cut by one Rafael Lopez, a resident and citizen of Arizona, and amounted to 6,496£ cords, of the value of $6 per cord, or the sum of $38,976.75.

■It is alleged that the timber belonged to the United States, and “was used and'consumed by the s.aid defendant for the purpose of roasting ore at the United Verde Copper mines, said mines being the property of defendant herein, at Jerome, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, in violation of the act of Congress of June 3, 1878, 20 Stat. 88, c. 150, and of the rules and regulations of the Secretary of the Interior, promulgated under the authority of said act of Congress.”

■The Copper Company demurred to the .complaint. The demurrer was sustained. The United States, ref used to amend, and judghient was entered for the Copper Company. It was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the Territory.

Section 1 of the act of June 3, 1878, upon which the action is based, is as follows:

“That all citizens Of the United States and other persons, bona fide residents of the State of Colorado or Nevada, or either of the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Dakota, Idaho, or Montana, and all other mineral districts of the United States, shall be, and are hereby, authorized and [211]*211permitted to fell and remove, for building, agricultural, mining, or other domestic purposes, any timber or other trees growing or being on the public lands, said lands being mineral, and not subject to entry under existing laws of the United States, except for mineral entry, in either of said States, Territories, or districts of whieh such citizens or persons may be at the time bona fide residents, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe for the protection of the timber and of the undergrowth growing upon such lands, and for other purposes: Provided, The provisions of this act shall not extend to railroad corporations.”

Section 2 makes it the duty of registers and receivers to ascertain whether any timber is being cut in violation of the provisions of the act, and, if so, to notify the Commissioner of the General Land Office thereof.

Section 3 makes violations of the act or of the rules and regulations made by the Secretary of the Interior misdemeanors, punishable by fine, not exceeding $500, “to which may be added imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months.”

Among the regulations promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior were the following:

“4. The uses for which the timber may be felled or removed are limited by the wording of the act to ‘ building, agricultural, mining, or other domestic purposes.’
“5. No timber is permitted to be felled or removed for purposes'of sale or traffic, or to' manufacture the same into lumber or for any other use whatsoever, except as defined in section 4 of these rules and regulations.
*1* iJj «U «i# «I* *T>
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“7. No timber is permitted to be used for smelting purposes, smelting being a separate and distinct industry from that of mining.
* * * * * * * *
“ 10. These rules and regulations shall take effect February 15, 1900, and all existing rules and regulations heretofore [212]*212prescribed under said act by this department are hereby rescinded.”

The contention of the United States is that roasting ore is smelting, and that smelting is not' a purpose permitted by the act of Congress, and is besides forbidden by the regulations of the Secretary of the Interior.

Roasting ore is defined by the Supreme Court of the Territory in, its opinion as follows:

“It is a matter of common knowledge that in this Territory the roasting of ore at the mines from which it is taken is ordinarily accomplished by piling the ore and the wood mingled with’ft in piles in the open air, and by igniting the wood'the fire is communicated to the sulphurous or other combustible ingredients in the ore, and thus by the heat generated by its own combustion and that of the wood mingled with it, the volatile substances áre driven off in vapor, smoke, and gases from the ore thus treated. By this treatment the ores that are extremely sulphide or highly charged with other volatile, substances are relieved from a large portion thereof, and are the more readily treated by smelting or other processes of reduction, and besides require less fluxing material for such reduction, and are also lighter in weight, and for that reason when shipped to other points for smelting or further treatment of any kind cost less for freight.”

The court distinguished this process, from smelting, and, decided that it is, in practice, a part of mining. It is a step, the court reasoned, in the extraction of the ore from the mine, and the separation of the ore from the rock enclosing it. Roasting ore, therefore, is preparation for smelting, but not smelting, which, • according to all of the definitions, is something more than melting — it is obtaining the metal by heat' arid such reagents as develop it.’ Roasting is done crudely in the open air by burning wood and ore mingled in a pile. Smelting is the function of an organized plant. But roasting ore, regarding the production of metal only is a preliminary step ta. smelting, and counsel for the Government makes much of [213]*213that circumstance. If this were all that is necessary to consider, the deduction would be easy that wood used for roasting ores is used for smelting purposes.

But the dependence of industries, one upon another, does not make them the same, and the division of labor between them is not as marked in new as in old communities, having a more varied industrial development. Regarding, therefore, the conditions which existed in the mining States and Territories, roasting ore was more naturally a part of mining than of smelting. The assignment', however, is unimportant in the view we take of the statute, and whether roasting ore be considered a part of mining or of smelting, the use of timber for it-has the sanction of the statute.

The statute provides “that all citizens of the United States . . . shall be and are hereby authorized and permitted to fell and remove for building, agricultural, mining, or other domestic purposes, any timber . . .” The special enumeration of industries is “building, argicultural, and mining.” But the permission of the statute is not confined to these. It extends to “other domestic purposes.” The limitation of the other purposes is in the word “domestic.”

Counsel for the Government recognizes this, and substitutes for “domestic” the word “household,” and contends that the word “other” should be treated as an intruder and eliminated from the statute, and making the latter read that timber may be felled for “building, agricultural, mining or domestic

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
196 U.S. 207, 25 S. Ct. 222, 49 L. Ed. 449, 1905 U.S. LEXIS 894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-united-verde-copper-co-scotus-1905.