Opinion ID: 1359672
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Assessment Work by Defendants and Their Assigns.

Text: Appellants contend that the evidence clearly shows that the proper assessment work for the year 1950-1951 was not done. They cite us to the testimony of John McCormick, who testified that the Government's work was taken as the assessment work for that year. Appellants also call attention to the fact that Uranium, Incorporated, assignee and lessee of defendants, filed no affidavits that the assessment work for that year was done; that Minnie McCormick filed a statement that the work was done, but that it was an unsworn statement; that she, better than anyone else was in a position to know whether or not the proper work was done, and that when she failed to attach an affidavit to her statements, it clearly appears that the proper work was not done. Appellants say that the foregoing facts made a prima facie case for them, and the burden to show the contrary thereupon shifted to the defendants, citing Kramer v. Taylor, 200 Or. 640, 266 P.2d 709. However, the force and effect of the foregoing facts and circumstances was for the trial court to resolve in view of other testimony in the case, namely, that by Robert Swanson who testified that he and some assistants did assessment work on the claims involved for some five days in June of 1951 on behalf of Uranium, Incorporated. Strangely enough, appellants in their brief claim this work was done in June of 1952 after appellants located their claims. This error  and error it was  leaves their argument on the point before us with little force and effect. Swanson testified that he and his assistants went onto the claims  sections 30, 31 and 32 and had with them a jeep with an auger mounted on the jeep, together with geiger counter, mineral light and sampling facilities. They carried out a systematic plan of digging holes, having a map with them. They began the drilling at the southeast trench which had been dug by the Minerals Engineering Company, went south 45 degrees from the farthest southeast trench and every second trench drilled a hole extending the known ore zone. They drilled 112 holes in section 31, some in section 32 and some in section 30. They found pellets for which they were looking. In most of the holes they made tests with a mineral light for fluorescence and tested practically each hole with a geiger counter. The witness testified that the value of the work was from $1,250 to $1,500, making more than $100 for each claim here involved. Appellants argue that the work done by the senior locators was not pinpointed, by which we presume they mean it was not shown that the proper assessment work was done. From that, if we understand counsel, they draw the conclusion that it appears the proper assessment work was not done on all the claims and that hence the burden of proof that the work was done for the benefit of all the claims shifted to the senior locators. They cite New Mercur Mining Co. v. South Mercur Mining Co., 102 Utah 131, 128 P.2d 269. It may not be amiss to examine the rule of shifting of the burden to some extent. We could have wished counsel for defendants had done so. They evidently misunderstood the law and their statement that work on contiguous claims may be done on one claim does not reach the point in question of the shifting of the burden of proof. The rule here invoked by counsel for appellants appears to apply in any event if the assessment work done is altogether outside the limits of a group of claims. 2 Lindley on Mines, 3d Ed., § 630, p. 1554. Whether it applies in all other cases also is another question. We should perhaps examine § 57-924 W.C.S. 1945 more closely than we have heretofore done. That section provides as follows: When two (2) or more placer mining claims lie contiguous and are owned by the same person, persons, company or corporation, the yearly expenditure of labor and improvements required on each of such claims may be made upon any one of such contiguous claims if the owner or owners shall thus prefer. In the case at bar the claims involved herein are all owned by one party; they are all contiguous and they are placer claims. On the face of the statute, these are all the facts necessary to be shown in order that the work done on any one claim inures for the benefit of all, provided, of course, that the total work done is sufficient to cover assessment work of $100 for each claim in accordance with the provisions of § 57-923 W.C.S. 1945. In other words, while it is doubtless true that the assessment work on one claim should be such as to benefit the whole group, § 57-924, supra, seems to contemplate that when the facts herein mentioned appear, there is a presumption that the work on one of the group-claims benefits all the others, and that to show the contrary would devolve upon the junior locators. The section provides the conditions under which the provisions thereof are applicable, namely, (1) that the group claims are owned by the same party; (2) that the claims are contiguous and (3) that the claims are placer claims. There is no indication in the section that other conditions should be affixed, namely, that the owner must show that the assessment work on one claim benefits the contiguous claims as well. See 58 C.J.S. § 72, p. 131, under placer claims. It is not suggested that § 57-924 W.C.S. 1945 is in any way in conflict with the federal statutes on the subject. It seems to be, as it were, supplemental thereto. Doubt on the subject is thrown by what is said in the note to Title 30, § 28, U.S.C.A. pp. 198, 199, subdivision 318, where it is stated: Assessment work done upon one of a number of adjoining claims held in common, to the amount required to be done upon all of them for the year, is sufficient to hold all of them, if it be clearly shown that it was intended as the annual assessment work upon all the claims and that it was of such a character that it would inure to their benefit and would facilitate the extraction of minerals from each of the claims.    In order that work done on one or more of a group of claims shall inure to the benefit of all, it must be shown affirmatively that it was of a character which tended to develop group as whole, and the expenditure of money or labor must equal in value that which would be required on all the claims if they were separate and independent. See also Morrison's Mining Rights, 16th Ed., p. 118; 2 Lindley on Mines, 3d Ed., § 630; 58 C.J.S. 144, n. 5. Most of these cases relate to lode claims and not to placer claims and do not involve any statute such as we have above considered. The case of Parker v. Belle Fourche Bentonite Products Co., 64 Wyo. 269, 189 P.2d 882, refers to § 57-924 W.C.S. 1945, but does not discuss it. In that case the junior locator undertook to show and did show that work done on other claims did not benefit the claim located by him. This would be in accord with what we have said in connection with § 57-924 W.C.S. 1945. If, however, the suggested meaning of § 57-924 W.C.S. 1945, is not correct that does not help the appellants in this case. There is evidence tending to show that Uranium, Incorporated, had a general plan for the development of all the claims involved herein. A number of laboratory tests were made as to the quality of the uranium ore, trenches were dug and holes were drilled in order to extend the area of the valuable uranium ore. There was direct testimony to the effect that the work done from 1947 to 1952, inclusive, in fact benefited all the claims in controversy herein. It is true there was some testimony to the contrary but the conffict was to be resolved by the trial court. Moreover it does not clearly appear on what particular claims no assessment work was done and hence we cannot say the burden of proof shifted in connection with any particular claim, let alone, as to all of them. Whatever pinpointing was to be done was to be done, we think, by the appellants herein according to the rule stated in 58 C.J.S. 144. In view of what we have said, little needs to be said as to the assessment work in the year from July 1, 1951, to June 30, 1952. The record shows a statement duly sworn to by W. Walter Byron that the assessment work for that year was duly performed. There is also testimony showing that the Minerals Engineering Company was paid the sum of about $1,800 for work done by that company in June 1952; that samples were taken by that company and tested in a laboratory. The question as to whether or not the proper assessment work was done is ordinarily a question of fact to be determined by the trial court. Parker v. Belle Fourche Bentonite Products Co., supra. We see no reason why the findings of fact by the trial court in this connection should be overruled.