Majority
Headnote
Mining Claims—Location—Excessive Boundaries not Vitiating Claim-—Good Faith Presupposed.—-The location of a mining claim is not rendered invalid merely because the locator includes within its boundaries more than the law permits. He is entitled to hold to the limit which the law authorizes, within the limits laid out, and only the territory embraced within his boundaries, which is in excess of such limits is to be rejected. This rule presupposes 'a location which injured no one at the time it was made and where it has been made in good faith.This is an action to determine the conflicting claims to certain mineral land situated in Sonoma County. Plaintiffs claim by virtue of an alleged location made by plaintiff Madeira on April 12, 1905, called the Madeira Magnesite Mine. Defendant claims as grantee of certain alleged several locations, made by Arnold, Davis, and Woods, on September 14, 1905, embracing the land claimed by plaintiffs. The cause was tried by the court without a jury and defendant had findings and judgment in its favor.
Plaintiffs claim that the following findings are not supported by the evidence: ‘ ‘ II. That said attempted location of said Madeira covered the ground described in paragraph 3 of the complaint herein and other ground. III. That the attempted location, viz., the Madeira Magnesite Mine, was not at the time of the attempted location thereof on or about April 32, 1905, or for more than a year thereafter, and long after the location on the same ground of the Cecilia, Flora, Marie, Seymour, and Cyril claims of defendant, distinctly marked on the ground, or marked at all, so that its boundaries could be readily traced.”
Plaintiffs appeal from the judgment on transcript of all the proceedings in the case.
There aré but two questions discussed in the briefs: 1. Assuming that Madeira made a location, was it void because of the excess of land included in it? and, 2. Was his location marked on the ground so that its boundaries could be readily traced?
Plaintiffs introduced a blue print map of the original Madeira location and as it was corrected on a relocation by Madeira in June, 1906. With the aid' of this map and the testimony of plaintiffs’ witness, Riley, who made the survey for plaintiffs, a fairly clear conception may be gained of what Madeira did, as shown by his testimony, in making his location in April, 1905. Austin Creek passes along a considerable portion of the southerly end line of the claim and meanders along its easterly boundary trending easterly at the northerly end line, as we understand the map; the points of the compass are not indicated. A trail ran along near this creek which was the means used by Madeira in passing from one part of the claim to another to locate his corners. As near as we can understand the process from his testimony, he
“Austin Creek Apr. 12th 1905
“Notice of Mineral Location
“I the undersigned claim 1500 feet by 600 feet of this lode for mining purposes. Located in sec. 21 twp. 9 N. R 11 W. adjoining the lands of Dr. Otner near Redslide, beginning at a tree and stake with monuments on South bank of East Austin Creek running 1500 feet in a Northwest and Southeast direction, with 300 feet on each side of lode with corner stakes and monuments on each corner. Lode crops high. Claimed for quicksilver, gold, silver or magnesite. George Madeira.”
His claim is in section 20 and not section 21, as stated in the notice. Madeira was familiar with the locality and with this particular ground and had made mineral locations before and claimed to know the requisites of the law governing the method of making them. He had some knowledge of surveying and civil engineering and carried a pocket compass on April 12,1905. He testified: That he- placed the first notice at “the point of discovery about 15 feet from the (south) end of the ledge on the south bank of the creek ... on account of the creek raising in the winter, it would carry it away if it was on the ledge; '. . . built a monument of rock around the base of the tree where the notice -was posted, and that was the center, of the ledge or lode. ’ ’ He then followed the trail leading up and down the creek to a point where “there was a pair of bars directly upon the trail.” He picked up a board which he found at the base of a so-called juniper tree, nailed it to the tree and on it nailed a copy pf his notice. He testified that any one going through these bars would see the notice. This was what he intended as his southwest corner. It was 276 feet away from where it should have been as shown, in the corrected location. He found his southeast corner by following the trail. “I would step straight east and then offset and go east again to maintain as straight a line as it was possible to do.” Reaching what he supposed was the southeast corner, he testified: “Posted a notice and built a monument of
Witness Bradley qualified as a surveyor and civil and mining engineer. He was employed, in September, 1905, to survey and assist defendant’s grantors in locating their mines and running lines and establishing monuments. He was there for ten days so engaged. His attention was called to the bars mentioned by Madeira and a cabin east of the outcroppings where Madeira testified he posted a notice on a picket fence. He testified that he was at these points and saw no notices. “Q. Did you cover the territory carefully around that deposit? A. Yes, sir, very carefully. Q. Did you cover the territory that could be described by a parallelogram 1500 feet long, the center line running southeasterly and northwesterly from the outcrop 300 feet on each side? A. Yes, sir, I did. Q. Did you find at or near any of the corners of such a figure or at the center line any monument or remains of a monument of any kind? A. Well, only one monument in the creek on the lode line, which had been very recently established there, ... on the southerly end of the lode.” It was shown that this monument was not one made by Madeira. “Q. Mr. Bradley, did you discover any evidence that a line had been run north or northeasterly from the outcrops? A. None at all; no blazed line; no brush cut out.” Other witnesses, who had formed part of the surveying party, gave similar testimony. Witness Arnold, one of the locators of defendants’ mines in conflict with the Madeira mine, in the last part of August, 1905, went to the located ground with his partners, Davis and Woods, and with them was Mr. Cooper, state mineralogist. Their particular object was to “expert this land for oil”; the party was there two days. He testified: “We were examining the veins that were shown on the
Section 2320 of the Revised Statutes of the United States provides that “no cláim shall exceed more than three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface.” [U. S. Comp. Stats., 1901, p. 1424, 5 Fed. Stats. Ann. p. 8.] It does not follow that the location is invalid where the locator includes within the boundaries of his claim more than the law permits. “He is entitled nevertheless to hold to the limit which the law authorizes within the limits laid out, and only the territory embraced within the boundaries which is in excess of these limits is to be rejected.” (McElligott v. Krogh, 151 Cal. 126 , [ 90 Pac. 823 ].) This rule presupposes a location which “injures no one at the time it is made, and where it has been made in good faith.” (Lindley on Mines, sec. 362.) The mere fact, then, that, in establishing his exterior boundaries, the locator has marked out too great a quantity of land does not necessarily invalidate his location. Where, however, the locator relies upon the corners he has established or has attempted to mark as indicia of the location of the lode or ledge, a different question may arise and a different rule may govern. If the courses are so widely separated from where they ought to be as to bear no apparent relation to the lode, i. e., are so remote as to justify a reasonable inference by one seeing the corners that they were not intended to apply to the lode in question, they would add little if any force to the claim that the law had been complied with. And this would be especially true if the notice once posted at the.discovery point had disappeared or the lode line was not distinctly marked. “If the preliminary notice is wanting there would be nothing to guide the subsequent locator, and the excessive location should be held worthless for any purpose.” (Ledoux v. Forester, 94 Fed. 600 .)
A subsequent locator coming on the ground and finding an uncertain marking of the discovery point and lode line and yet sufficient to arouse inquiry and require examination for exterior boundaries, would not be required to go much if any beyond the lateral limits to look for corners or other markings of the boundaries; and certainly he would not be charged with
An instructive opinion by Judge Hanford is found in Ledoux v. Forester, 94 Fed. 600 , where the requirements of the statute are stated and the suggestions last above made are given significance. It was there said: “Where the country is broken and the view from one corner to the other is obstructed by intervening gulches and timber and brush, it is necessary to blaze the trees along the lines, or cut away the brush and set more stakes at such distances that they may be seen from one to another, or dig the ground up in a way to indicate the lines so that the boundaries may be readily traeecl.. The least that can be required of locators is that the corner stakes shall not be so far apart as to include an area considerably greater than the size of the claim as described in the posted notice, or greater than the law allows to be included in a single claim. I admit the rule that a location which is made in other respects in conformity to law, but which is greater in length or width than the law permits to be taken in one claim, is not for a mere error in that respect, void, except as to the excess; but when, as in this case, the validity of the location is disputed for alleged failure to fulfill the requirements of the law with reference to marking the claim upon the ground, so that the boundaries can be readily traced, the length of the lines and the distance between stakes must be taken into account in connection with the other facts proved, for the purpose of determining this question. It is obvious that if a person, measuring from the stakes at one end of the claim, the required distance in the direction indicated by the notice of location does not find the other end stakes, nor anything else to guide him to where the stakes may be found, he may reasonably conclude that such comer stakes have not been set and that the location is void. In such a case the excessive distance between the corner stakes is misleading and a locator who has committed such an error has failed to comply with the law.”
In Gleeson v. Martin White M. Co., 13 Nev. 442 , cited by both parties, will be found an illuminating discussion of the mining law. Beatty, J., speaking for the court, said: "One of the imperative requirements of' the statute, an indispensable condition precedent of a valid location, is that it shad be ‘distinctly marked on the ground so that the boundaries can be readily traced.’ ” Quoting from Golden Fleece Company v. Cable Con. Co., 12 Nev. 312 , he said: "It is true that the vein is the principal thing and that the surface is but an.incident thereto; but it is also true that the mining law has provided no means of locating a vein except by defining a surface claim, including the croppings, or point at which the vein is exposed, and the part of the vein located is determined by reference to the lines of the surface claim. ’ ’ Again: "How soon after the discovery of the vein ‘the location must be distinctly marked on the ground so that its boundaries can be readily traced’ (Rev. Stats., sec. 2324), [U. S. Comp. Stats. 1901, p. 1426, 5 Fed. Stats. Ann. p. 19], we do not decide, but until it is so marked we are clear that the location is not complete, and the law has not been complied with. ’ ’ The opinion points out that the object of the law in requiring the location to be marked on the ground is "to fix the claim, to prevent floating and swinging, so that those who in good faith are looking for unoccupied ground in the vicinity of previous locations may be enabled to ascertain exactly what has been appropriated in order to make their locations upon the residue.” It is further shown that the statute does not in terms require the boundaries to be marked but requires the “location to be so marked that its boundaries can be readily traced.” The learned justice adds: "It would be safer and therefore better to comply with the recommendation of the
“George Madeira testified that he had long been familiar with the ledge of magnesite at this point, and that on April 12, 1905, he visited it for the express purpose of locating a mine on it. That on this date the ledge was vacant and showed no signs of ever having been worked. That on this day he posted three notices and monuments on the claim as follows: The first notice was placed at the point of discovery, about fifteen feet from the end of the ledge on the south bank of Austin Creek, and he built a monument of rock around the base of the tree upon which the notice was posted. The second notice was tacked on a board, which board was nailed on a juniper cedar tree at a place where there was a pair of bars, near the trail running beside the creek; this was at the southwest corner of the claim. The third notice was posted by nailing it on a fence and making a mound of earth and placing a picket in it. This was the southeast corner of the claim. A copy of these notices, -which were all alike, was recorded by him in book G of Promiscuous Records at page
No notice was posted at the south and center. Only the point of discovery and the north and center were thus marked and' these two points were nearly the entire length of the claim apart. There were no blazings or other markings of the center line; the country was rough and brushy and neither end of the claim was visible from the other. It is obvious that the Gleeson case gives no support to the claim that the center line was sufficiently marked to bring it within the requirements of the statute.
Madeira’s resurvey and relocation, made in June, 1906, is convincing evidence that he did not regard his claim as distinctly marked on the ground. At best his location was only such as would have entitled him within a reasonable time after discovery to mark his boundaries, either by definitely marking his center line, as was done in the Gleeson case, or both by marking that line and his exterior boundaries, before conflicting rights accrued. (Lindley on Mines, sec. 373.) He knew that defendant’s grantors had located the ground and were at work on it in September, 1905. The evidence is that they performed a large amount of labor on the mine, that their possession was unbroken from the date of their location; their good faith is not seriously questioned; there is no evidence that they knew of Madeira’s location when they made their location, or until in October, unless imparted constructively by the recorded notice, which cannot be said to give notice for it does not identify the lode. "With this knowledge on his
Upon the sufficiency of the steps taken by Madeira to make a location, we content ourselves with the view expressed by the learned trial judge. We quote: “And the marking upon the ground should be made so certain and so plain that any one prospecting in the same locality would have no trouble in locating the exact ground claimed. Measured by the above rule, was the marking of the claim by Madeira sufficient? This statute (Rev. Stats., sec%2324) [U. S. Comp. Stats. 1901, p. 1426, 5 Fed. Stats. Ann. p. 19], does not require that a notice shall be recorded. Nor does it require that a notice' shall be posted on the claim. It leaves these matters to the regulations of the local laws. The local laws generally require that a notice shall be posted, and even in the absence of such a requirement, it would be a very proper aid to the descriptiou. But the statute does not require it. (Carter v. Bacigalupi, 83 Cal. 188 , [ 23 Pac. 361 ].) It is conceded in this action that there are no local mining laws governing the location of the claim in dispute.
“All of the authorities agree that any marking by which the location may be readily traced is sufficient. I think that the following citations state the law:
“ ‘All of the authorities agree that any markings on the ground by stakes, monuments, mounds, and written notices whereby the boundaries can be readily traced is sufficient’’: (Book v. Justice Min. Co., 58 Fed. 113 , and cases cited.)
“ ‘If a third party intending to locate can readily ascertain from what has been done by the prior locator, the extent and boundaries of the claim so located, then the object of the statute has been' accomplished. ’ (Kern Oil Co. v. Crawford, 143 Cal. 302 , [ 3 L. R. A, (N. S.) 993 , 76 Pac. 1112 ].)
“Applying the above rule to the four corners as located by Madeira, I do not think that it can be said that any of them come within the rule. His southwest corner was a copy of the notice tacked on a board and nailed on a juniper tree 276 feet beyond the point where it should have been located. This notice, after describing the lode, called for ‘ corner stakes and monuments on each coiner. ’ This posting of a notice without
“And a notice nailed on a picket fence would in all probability not last long in the mountains. His northeast corner was made by building a monument of rock and placing a stake in it. The stake was not driven in the ground, nor was the size of the monument given. This was 145 feet north of where it should have been located, in a country that was ‘extremely broken and rough and covered densely with chaparral’ (Madeira’s testimony). And there were other monuments near by (Riley’s testimony). His northwest corner was-made by breaking off the top of a small dead tree three or four inches in diameter and digging a mound of earth with his pick, and piling some small boulders about the base of the tree. This was 364 feet north of where his corner should have been on the west side of his claim, which, according to his testimony, was practically impassable, and he made no effort to get through it.
“'While the law is as has been quoted, that where a locator has by mistake in good faith laid off more land in his claim than he was entitled to, that it is void for the excess only, I do no think that it can be held that monuments of as temporary a character as Madeira testified that he built, in an extremely broken and rough country densely covered with brush and at points so far away from where the real corners should have been placed, where there were a good many other monuments of like character, with nothing to identify them as corners of this particular claim, can be said to come within the rule as above laid down, as being sufficient to notify third parties of what has been done by prior locators. There has been but one exception made to this rule. But that was where the prior locators had done work on the' claim, and the junior
In their brief, appellants call attention to the errors of law alleged to have been committed in the admission or rejection of evidence. The brief states that “the court erred in permitting the witness,” etc., or “the court erred in permitting the witness to answer the following question,” citing page of transcript. The alleged errors are nbt argued, counsel merely calling attention to the exceptions reserved by the plaintiffs at certain folios of the transcript. A point so presented to this court will not he considered. (Pigeon v. Fuller, 156 Cal. 691 , 702, [ 105 Pac. 976 ].)
The judgment is affirmed.
. Hart, J., and Burnett, J., concurred.
Cases cited
- McElligott v. Krogh 151 Cal. 126 p. 726
- Pigeon v. W. P. Fuller & Co. 156 Cal. 691 at 702 p. 733