The San Francisco call., 1904-06-01
IDAHO MINING
CASE DECIDED
Bunker Hill People Win
After Long Continued Liti-
cation Over the Property

After a struggle in the courts lasting
for several years. the Bunker Hill and
Sullivan Mining and Concentrating
Company of Idaho has been declared
the lawful owner Of mining property
valued at nearly a million dollars.
The defendants in the case were Last
Chance Mining Company; Shoshone
Mining Company, Empire State-Idaho
Mining and Development Company and
other and smaller concerns.
The Bunker Hill people, misled by
surface appearances. ran their longi-
tudinal lines in their original location
across the rich mineral bearing lode,
so that what they believed to be their
end lines were in reality their side
lines. Under mining laws lodes and
veins may be worked underground
through side lines no. matter how far
they may go, but no work may be
prosecuted underground or on the sur
face beyond the vertical plane of the
end lines projected to the center of
the earth. The decision of the United
States Circuit Court of Appeals affirms
that of the District CDurt of Idaho
that in such a case the intention of the
Iocators may be considered, and the
=.
There is no appeal from this decision
save. by a writ of certiorari to the Su-
preme Court of the United States and
a writ of certiorari must present CO.
gent reasons before it VIII be .consid-
cred. The following are the prominent
points of the decision:
The fact that one Individual or company or
corporation locates or acquires many such
claims is wholly unimportaut. Congress has
never yet seen proper to put limit on th.,
number of such claims that Individual
company or corporation may locate or ac-
The failure of the locator of the Bunser
Hill claim to record his notice OF location
within the time prescribed by the Idaho stat
ute did not work forfeiture Of the claim
there being no such penalty fixed by the stat
The lines originally located as side lines of
the Bunker Hill mine are parallel and II ap-
pearing from the findings Of the Commissioner
that the apex of the lode crosses these lines.
they become in law the real end lines of the
claim. The extralateral right OF the vein out
cropping at the surface where it exists is
fixed by the course of the lode on the surface
and not by its course on the level. While the
statute requires parallelism of the end lines.
and the courts having held that they may not
be laid so divergent to include more in
length upon the dip OF the vein than is al
lowed in length upon the surface neither the
statute nor any decision that has been brought
to our notice defines any particular angle at
which the end lines shall cross the general
course Of the vein in order that the extralat-
eral right given by the statute may exist
Where more than one. vein apexes within the
surface lines It would be physical Irnpossi-
bility for the end lines to be drawn at a
right angle to the courses of all such veins.
The court also handed down the fol-
lowing decisions:
Portland FIGURING Mills Company VS.. British
Fire and Marine Insurance Company LTD -
District of Oregon. Decree affirmed with costs
Boise City Irrigation Land Company VS. w
A. Clark. James Larkins and George Gumbert
County Commissioners of Ada County Idaho
Judgment affirmed.
ham claimant VS.. Julius A. Schumacher
Judgment reversed with instructions to dismiss
the libel