Work Min. & Mill. Co. v. Doctor Jack Pot Mining Co.

222 F. 216, 137 C.C.A. 647, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 1439
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 17, 1915
DocketNo. 4070
StatusPublished

This text of 222 F. 216 (Work Min. & Mill. Co. v. Doctor Jack Pot Mining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Work Min. & Mill. Co. v. Doctor Jack Pot Mining Co., 222 F. 216, 137 C.C.A. 647, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 1439 (8th Cir. 1915).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

This writ of error challenges a verdict of $400,000 for ores extracted by the Work Mining & Milling Company, the defendant below, from Number One vein and the Timber Drift vein, which had their apices in the Lucky Corner lode mining claim, which was owned by the Doctor Jack Pot Mining Company, the plaintiff below, but extended on their dip outside the vertical side lines of the Lucky Corner claim and beneath the surface of the adjoining Little Clara lode mining claim, which was owned by the defendant. In its complaint the plaintiff alleged that it was the' owner of the Lucky Corner lode mining claim, of the Number One vein, and of the Timber Drift vein, that these veins had their apices in its claim, that these veins extended on their dip outside the vertical side lines, of its claim, that it was in possession and entitled to the possession of these veins or lodes throughout their entire depth, but that the defendant entered into and upon them, ousted the plaintiff therefrom, has ever since held and con-[217]*217tilines lo hold possession thereof, and that it has extracted therefrom ores of the value of $980,000. In its answer the defendant denied that the plaintiff was the owner of that part of either of the two veins lying outside the vertical side lines of the Lucky Corner claim, denied that the defendant had ousted the plaintiff from the possession thereof or had extracted any ore therefrom, and alleged that it was the owner of the Little Clara lode mining claim, which was senior in location and discovery to the Lucky Corner claim, that the ores it had taken out had been taken from within the vertical side lines of the Little Clara claim, and that they were the property of the defendant.

After the issues had been joined the parties stipulated:

“That the issue of title and ownership and right of possession of the veins and ores in controversy herein shall be alone tried and determined by the court and jury at the trial of said cause about to be had. The issue of damages to the plaintiff shall be reserved for further trial and proceedings, and nothing herein shall be permitted to prejudice or affect said issue o£ damages, but the same may be thereafter tried, determined, and disposed of in all respects as though this stipulation had not been made.”

.Accordingly the issues of title and ownership were first tried, and the jury returned a verdict that the plaintiff was “the owner and entitled to the possession of that portion of the Lucky Corner lode mining claim, U. S. Sur. No. 9209, Cripple Creek mining district, Colorado, known and described in the complaint herein as the Number One vein, and in the answer as Lower Forty-Five vein, lode, or ledge, throughout its entire depth, between two vertical planes both parallel to the end lines of said Lucky Corner claim, one drawn through the point where the apex of said vein crosses into the patented surface of said Lucky Corner claim, being at a point south 35 degrees west 60 feet from the southerly corner No. 4 of Little Clara claim, and the other drawn through a point on the western side line 3-4 of the Mountain Monarch claim south 28 degrees 47 minutes west 440 feet from the northwest corner, No. 4, of the Mountain Monarch claim,” and that the plaintiff was. the owner and entitled to the possession of that portion of the Timber Drift vein throughout its entire depth between two vertical planes parallel 1» the end lines of the Lucky Corner claim specifically described in the verdict. The vertical planes specified in this verdict, which constitute the northern and southern limits, respectively, of the portions of the veins found to be owned by the plaintiff, will be hereafter called the extralateral planes. After the judgment upon this' verdict had been affirmed by this court, the trial of the question of damages was had, and it resulted in the verdict of $400,000 against the defendant, which is now here for consideration.

it is assigned as error that at this second trial the court below excluded evidence tending to show that some of the ore extracted by the defendant from the Little Clara claim between the extralateral planes described in the verdict on the trial of the title was not taken from either Number One vein or the Timber Drift vein, but was extracted from other separate and independent veins within those extralateral planes that were the property of the defendant, that some of this ore was taken from the space of intersection of Number One vein with another vein or veins to which, under section 2336, Revised Statutes, the [218]*218ore in this space belonged, and that the court held that the trial, verdict, and judgment on the question of title had finally adjudged that all the ore extracted by the defendant from beneath the surface of the Little Clara claim between the extralateral planes specified in the verdict on the question of title was the property of the plaintiff. In support of these rulings counsel for the plaintiff argue: (1) That the stipulation was that the title and ownership of the “veins and ores in controversy” should be determined at the first trial, that the determination thereof involved the location of the apices of the two veins, their continuity from these apices through the vertical side planes of the Lucky Corner claim beneath the surface of the Little Clara claim to their entire depth, and hence through their intersections and the adjudication of the ownership of all the ores beneath the surface of the Little Clara claim between the extralateral planes specified in the verdict on the title, and that all these issues were tried and adjudicated; (2) that, if any of them were not so determined, the defendant might have had them adjudicated at that trial, and is therefore as fully estopped from contesting them as though they had been tried and determined; and (3) that, if these issues were not determined by the trial of the title, the evidence offered by the defendant on the last trial was insufficient to require the court to receive and submit it to the jury.

The record of the trial of the title is in hand, and has been thoughtfully examined and considered in the light of the arguments of counsel. The determining question is: Does that record and the record at the last trial present substantial evidence that at the trial of the title the question whether or not all the ore extracted by the defendant from beneath the surface of the Little Clara claim between the extra-lateral planes described in the first verdict was tried and adjudged in favor of the plaintiff at the trial of the title ? While the stipulation for the trial of the title is that the issue of title and right of possession “of the veins and ores in controversy” shall be first tried, it is also that “the issue of damages to the plaintiff shall be reserved for further trial and proceedings, and' nothing herein shall be permitted to prejudice or affect said issue of damages, but the same may be thereafter fried, determined, and disposed of as though this stipulation had not been made.” And here in this provision of the stipulation is the answer to the contention that, even if the issue whether or not all the ores .extracted from beneath the surface of the Little Clara claim within the extralateral planes was not tried at the first trial, the defendant is estopped from trying it at this trial because it might have been tried at the first.

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222 F. 216, 137 C.C.A. 647, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 1439, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/work-min-mill-co-v-doctor-jack-pot-mining-co-ca8-1915.