Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/130/291/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 04:33:34+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 130 › Hammer v. Garfield Mining & Milling Co.
case is brought here by writ of error, the finding will be treated here as if made by the court and as covering all the issues, and the only questions which can be considered here are those arising from the rulings in the admission or rejection of evidence and those respecting the inferences deducible from the proofs made.
In the absence of a provision of statute in Montana respecting the manner of authenticating a copy of the certificate of incorporation of a corporation of a state, filed in the records of a County of Montana, the certificate of the original custodian in the origin, under his seal of office, is a sufficient authentication.
The provision in Rev.Stat. § 2324, that records of mining claims shall contain such "reference to some natural object or permanent monument as will identify the claim" means only that this is to be done when such reference can be made, and when it cannot be made, stakes driven into the ground are sufficient for identification, or a reference to a neighboring mine, with distance and date of location, which will be presumed to be a well known natural object in the absence of contradictory proof.
The oath of one of the locators of a mining claim accompanying the recorded notice of the location is, in the absence of contradiction, prima facie evidence of the fact of the citizenship of all the locators.
It being established in an action to quiet a mining title in Montana that the plaintiff was in quiet and undisputed possession of the premises, the validity of his location not being questioned in the pleadings, and that the boundary of his claim was so marked on the surface as to be readily traced, this constitutes a prima facie case which can only be overcome by proof of abandonment or forfeiture or other divestiture and the acquisition of a better right or title by the defendant.
A forfeiture of a mining claim cannot be established except upon clear and convincing proof of the failure of the former owner to have work performed or improvements made to the amount required by law.
claims an estate or interest therein adverse to him for the purpose of determining such adverse claim, estate, or interest. Comp.Stats. 1887, § 366. The complaint alleges that the plaintiff is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York for the purpose of carrying on the business of mining and milling ores bearing gold, silver, and other precious metals in Montana, and that it has complied with all the laws of the territory relative to foreign corporations; that it is the owner of a certain quartz lode in the County of Lewis and Clarke, in the territory, known as the "Garfield" lode or mining claim, which has been surveyed and is designated upon the records of the office of the United States surveyor general of the territory, and contains an area of twenty acres and 62/100 of an acre, the metes and bounds of which are given; that the plaintiff and its predecessors in interest have been in the possession of and entitled to the lode ever since its discovery and location; that notwithstanding its right to the possession, the defendant below (the plaintiff in error here), Auge O. Hammer, on or about the 1st of January, 1883, assumed to enter upon the premises and relocate the same and caused the relocation to be recorded in the records of the county under the name of the "Kinna Lode;" that he pretends to claim an interest or estate therein adversely to the plaintiff, and has made application to the United States land office at Helena, in the territory, for a patent therefor; that the plaintiff has duly filed in that office its adverse claim to the premises, setting forth its nature and origin, and that the proceedings in the land office have been stayed until the final determination by the court of the right of possession to the premises.
Two other persons, by the names of Kinna and Bliss, are also made defendants, who, it is averred, assert some claim to the premises by a relocation at the same time with the defendant Hammer. The complaint alleges that the claims of all the defendants are without right and that no one of them has any estate or interest in the mining ground nor in any part thereof.
3. That the defendants be forever be barred from asserting any claim whatever to the premises, or any part thereof.
All the defendants filed demurrers to the complaint on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The defendant Hammer withdrew his demurrer and filed an answer. It does not appear from the record what disposition was made of the demurrer of the defendants Kinna and Bliss, but as they do not appear to have taken any further part in the defense of the action, and are not mentioned in the judgment or in the appeal taken to the supreme court of the territory, it may be presumed that the action was discontinued as to them.
The answer of Hammer denies that the plaintiff is the owner of the lode described in the complaint or of any part of it, or that it is now or has been for a long time in possession thereof or of any part thereof, or that it or its predecessors in interest have ever since the discovery and location thereof been in possession of it or of any part thereof or entitled to the possession thereof, or that the defendant at any time assumed to relocate the premises, and to cause the relocation to be recorded in the records of the county, or that his claim is without right.
been their owner, and entitled to their possession, and that whatever claim the plaintiff ever had to them became forfeited before the 1st of January, 1883, since which time it has not had any estate, title, or interest therein, or possession thereof.
"Wherefore, by virtue of the law, and by reason of the premises, it is ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the plaintiff have judgment as prayed for in its complaint herein against the defendant Auge O. Hammer, and that all adverse claim of the said defendant, and of all persons claiming or to claim the premises in said complaint described, or any part thereof, through or under said defendant, are hereby adjudged and decreed to be invalid and groundless, and that the plaintiff is, and it is hereby declared and adjudged to be, the true and lawful owner of the land described in the complaint, and every part and parcel thereof, and that the title thereto is adjudged to be quieted against all claims, demands, or pretensions of the said defendant, and said defendant is hereby perpetually estopped from setting up any claim thereto, or any part thereof."
Then follows a description of the premises and an order that plaintiff recover costs. On appeal to the supreme court of the territory, the judgment was affirmed, and to review the latter judgment, the case is brought to this Court.
which the court will give to the questions raised by the pleadings, when the case is called for trial or hearing, whether it will submit them to a jury, or pass upon them without any such intervention, must depend upon the jurisdiction which is to be exercised. If the remedy sought be a legal one, a jury is essential unless waived by the stipulation of the parties; but if the remedy sought be equitable, the court is not bound to call a jury, and if it does call one, it is only for the purpose of enlightening its conscience, and not to control its judgment. The decree which it must render upon the law and the facts must proceed from its own judgment respecting them, and not from the judgment of others."
The court might therefore have heard this case and disposed of the issues without the intervention of a jury, but, it having called a jury, the trial was conducted in the same manner as a trial of an issue at law. Such is the practice under the system of procedure in the territory. Ely v. New Mexico & Arizona Railroad Co., 129 U. S. 291; Parley's Park Silver Mining Co. v. Kerr, ante, 130 U. S. 256. The finding of the jury, being accepted as satisfactory, must be treated as if made by the court, and, being general, as covering all the issues. The only questions, therefore, we can consider on this writ of error are those arising from the rulings in the admission and rejection of evidence and those respecting the inferences deducible from the proofs made. These rulings, so far as we deem them of sufficient importance to be noticed, relate to the evidence of the plaintiff's incorporation; to the evidence of the location of the plaintiff's mining claim; to the evidence of the citizenship of the locators, and to the inferences to be drawn from the evidence of the plaintiff's prior possession of the premises.
"file for record with the secretary of the territory, and also with the recorder of the county in which they are carrying on business, the charter or certificate of incorporation, duly authenticated, or a copy of said charter or certificate of incorporation."
The law does not specify in what way the copy filed shall be authenticated, and, in the absence of any provision on that subject, the certificate of the official custodian, under the seal of his office, must be deemed sufficient. It does not appear that a copy of the certificate of incorporation was filed with the secretary of the territory, but, no objection to the introduction of the county records having been taken on that ground, it will be presumed that such filing existed, and, if required, it could have been readily shown. There was no error, therefore, in the ruling of the court admitting the records of the county showing the incorporation of the plaintiff in the State of New York.
"Garfield Lode. Notice of Location."
"Notice is hereby given that the undersigned, having complied with the requirements of chapter six of title thirty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and the local customs, laws, and regulations, has located fifteen hundred (1,500) linear feet on the above-named lode, situated in Vaughan Mining District, Lewis and Clarke County, Montana Territory, and described as follows: commencing at discovery stake, running fifty feet east to center stake; then three hundred feet north to stake 'A;' thence fifteen hundred feet west to stake 'B;' thence six hundred feet south to stake 'C,' and fifteen hundred feet east to stake 'D,' and three hundred feet north to place of commencement. This lode is located about fifteen hundred feet south of Vaughan's Little Jennie Mine, and described and located on the 4th day of July, 1880."
"County of Lewis and Clarke ss.:"
"Julius Horst, being first duly sworn, says that he and his co-locator are citizens of the United States, over the age of twenty-one years; that said location is made in good faith, and matters as stated in the foregoing notice of location by him subscribed are true."
"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 26th day of August, 1880."
"[County Seal.] O. B. TOTTEN"
"shall contain the name or names of the locators, the date of the location, and such a description of the claim or claims located, by reference to some natural object or permanent monument, as will identify the claim. "
"as being 1,500 feet south from a well known quartz location, and there is nothing in the evidence to contradict such a description, distance, and direction."
3d. As to the citizenship of the locators of the mining claim. The Revised Statutes open the mineral lands of the public domain to exploration and occupation and purchase by citizens of the United States and persons who have declared their intention to become citizens. It is therefore objected here that there is no evidence of the citizenship of the original locators, but the objection is not tenable. The oath of one of the locators, accompanying the recorded notice of location, as to their citizenship, is prima facie evidence of the fact, and it will be deemed sufficient until doubt is thrown upon the accuracy of his statement.
4th. As to the inferences deducible from the plaintiff's prior possession of the premises. The ruling of the court on that head is contained in its instructions to the jury. Though addressed to that body in an action seeking equitable relief, they indicate the judgment of the court as to the legal conclusions which should follow from the prior possession established.
"If you believe from the evidence in the case that prior to the 31st day of December, A.D. 1882, the plaintiff was in the quiet and undisputed possession of the premises designated in the complaint as the 'Garfield Lode,' the validity of the original location of which is not questioned in the pleadings or testimony, claimed by the defendant as the 'Kinna Lode;' that the boundaries of said claim were so marked upon the surface as to be readily traced, and that theretofore there had been discovered within said boundaries a vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, or other precious metals, then this constitutes a prima facie case for the plaintiff, which can only be overcome by the defendant by proof of subsequent abandonment or forfeiture or other divestiture, and the acquisition of a better right or title by the defendant."
agree that if error intervened, it was not prejudicial to the defendant. The supreme court of the territory treated the instructions precisely as though given in an action at law, trials of issues in suits in equity there being, as already stated, generally governed by the same incidents as trials of issues in actions at law. In that view, the instructions are not, in our judgment, open to any criticism. It is only as showing the ruling of the court respecting the inferences deducible from the prior possession of the plaintiff that we examine them, and on that subject they express the law correctly. If the trial were treated as of a feigned issue directed by the court, different considerations would arise. An erroneous ruling in that case would not necessarily lead to a disturbance of the verdict. Barker v. Ray, 2 Russ. 63, 75; Johnson v. Harmon, 94 U. S. 371; Watt v. Starke, 101 U. S. 247, 101 U. S. 250-252; Wilson v. Riddle, 123 U. S. 608, 123 U. S. 615.
As to the alleged forfeiture set up by defendant, it is sufficient to say that the burden of proving it rested upon him; that the only pretense of a forfeiture was that sufficient work, as required by law, each year, was not done on the claim in 1882, and that the evidence adduced by him on that point was very meager and unsatisfactory, and was completely overborne by the evidence of the plaintiff. Belk v Meagher, 104 U. S. 279. A forfeiture cannot be established except upon clear and convincing proof of the failure of the former owner to have work performed or improvements made to the amount required by law.

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 § 366
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