The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-11-07
OF INTERETS
TO MONTANA
Several Recent Decisions of the Gen
eral Land Office.
RIGHTS OF A DESERTED WIFE
Valid Entry Depends Upon Notice of
the AppIication-Decisions in Min
ing Cases.

A number of land Office decisions
received in Helena will be of espe
cial interest to the people of this
} state, where filings are being contin
ually made, and where there vet re
main vast tracts of land subject tx
entry. In one of these decisions il
| is stated that where a woman makes
ar application for a homestead en-
try as a deserted wife, and subse
quently procures a divorce on the
ground of desertion, and entry upon
her application is afterward allowed
in contest against such entry on
the ground of fraud and collision
the department is not bouna by the
finding of fact made by the court in
the divorce proceedings, but may de-
termine from the proof whether or
not she was a deserted wife, at the
time of her application
In the case of the state of Wash
ington against the Northern Pacific
Railway company, it is held that the
preference right of selection granted
to certain states including the state
of Washington, by the act of March
3, 1898, includes he right to select
indemnity for losses occurring to the
grant made to said state in support
| Of common schools.
| In the case of the Northern Pacific
| against Pyle, it is stated that the
! fact that rae of unsurveyed land in
cluded in a list of selections filed by
the Northern Pacific Railway com
pany under the provisions of section
four of the act of March 8, 1899, was
properly described in the list accord
ing to the description thereof in the
official survey and subsequently ap-
proved does not relieve the company
from filing a second list within three
months after the plat Of survey of
the township in which the land is sit
uated is filed in the local land Office,
describing such tract according to
such survey, as required by the sec
ton, and failure to file such second
list within the time required subjects
the land to intervening claims.
! When a homestead entryman, who
| has declared his intention of becom-
ing a citizen, dies, after the submits
sion of final proof, without having
| been admitted to citizenship, but
having complied with the law in all
other respects, except as to the sub
mission of proof within the statutory
period, the entry may be equitably
confirmed for the benefit of the heirs
who are citizens, and patent issue in
their names
In the case of the Southern Cross
Gold Mining company VS.. Sexton ct
al, the department holds that there
can be no valid entry upon an appli-
cation for patent to a mining claim
have been lawfully given. An adjudi-
cation of the land department that
the notice of application for patent
to mining claim is fatally defective
is equivalent to determination that
an entry based upon such application
such case the entry will be treated as
though formally Cancelled as of the
| date the notice was finally adjudi-
Gated to be insufficient.
In Purtle VS.. Seffee the department
says that in controversy between con-
ficting claimants to the same land
arising upon protest by mineral To-
Gator against an application to pur-
chase under the act of June 8, 1878,
| (amended by the act of August 4,
1922. where it appears that the land
| when surveyed was returned as of
| little, if any, value for agricultural
purposes and chiefly valuable for the
timber thereon, and the final proof
submitted in support of such applica,
ton appears to be sufficient in form
and substance, the burden of proof
at hearing upon such protest rests
upon the protestant.
Where in such a case the evidence
fails to show that the land in contro-
versy contains valuable mineral de-
posits, and it appears that the discov-
cry on the strength of which the min
eral location was made consisted of
the digging of prospect hole to the
depth of ten feet, in which about two
cents worth of gold was found, and
ample time and opportunity were af-
forded prior to the hearing to test
the extent and value of the alleged
mineral deposits. without any syste-
matte or continuous prospecting or
working of the claim having been
done. it cannot be held that such a
location is mining claim within the
meaning of said act of June 8, 1878.
Rose Cunningham, living north of
town, died at the hospital last week,
and his body was shipped to his for
/ ,,,o,. bow nd To Do