The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-10-22
COLONEL WALL
LOSES BIG SUIT
Famous Kempton Case, So
Called, Decided in Favor of
the United States Co.
MILLIONS WERE INVOLVED
LIME LODE HOLDS ORE AGAINST
A FISSURE.

y Washington, Oct. 2l.-The supreme y
= court of the United States today de- y
y cided the case of Leonidas NJ Law 4
y son and others versus the United
y States Mining company, favorably TO =
y the company. The case involves I
y question as to the right to follow =
= mineral veins from the apex in the =
y Jordan Extension, Northern Light y
\ and other mines in the West Noun. I
y tain district, near Bingham. Utah. y
%%%%%~%%%|%%-t~ ~ %%E%%%%
This is one of the most important de-
cisions affecting mining interests in Utah
that has been finally decided in many
years 1t gives TO the United States com
pany great bodies Of lead ore developed
an the Kempton and Ashton lodes by
Colonel Z. A. Wall. that have been vari-
ously estimated TO be worth from $780,
600 to $3,000.0OO. While the title of the
case was as stated above. Colonel Wall
who held the properties under lease and
bond, was the real party in interest and
he is the man who has fought the propo-
eition through all the courts and he II Is
who is the loser by the decision. While
the real significance of the decision will
not be perfectly understood until its text
has been received, Colonel Wall compia-
Gently acknowledges defeat and says that
the courts decision probably settles for
good any agitation between himself and
the United States company.
Fight Stubborn One.
The fight has been a most stubbornly
fought one from the start, which dates
back for between five and six years. 1t
has cost both sides a great deal of mon
ey. Without dwelling on the early bat
ties that finally led up to the main dis
pute it may be briefly stated that the
point at issue has been whether the
great fissure ledge or vein in which the
ore bodies were found held title to the ore
bodies, or whether the lime lode through
which this fiSsure cut was to be con-
strued as the vein and given title to the
ore.
Colonel Wall commended that the fissure
was the vein and that, as il apeXed in his
ground. the ores it might contain be-
pany claimed that the lode lime was the
vein; that it apeXed in ground belonging
10 the United States company and dipped
down through the claims owned by Wall
and carried title to the ores that might
make in the assures or out into the lime
from them.
This only imperfectly explains the sit
uation. but it is probably sufficiently
clear for the lay reader to understand
lust about what has happened. 1t IS a
decision that is likely to some day cause
lots of trouble I'm Bingham. as the great
belts of lime that cut through the dis
trict may be made TO play important parts
in the determination of apex and extra
lateral rights in the years TO come.
Great the amount involved in this
action has been, Colonel Wall takes a
philosophical view of the outcome and
saws that he sees no way TO get even with
the opposition unless he writes a book
on the subject. If he should decide to do
that there would be a lively contribution
TO the economic geology and mlneralOSy
of Bingham that cannot now be found in
the government reports.