Court Opinion

ID: 3307797
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 17:22:01.445096+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:10.520914
License: Public Domain

I dissent from the order denying a rehearing of this cause. There can be no location of a mining claim before discovery, and there can be no transfer or assignment of a location before the location is complete. There can, in other words, be no assignment of the right to locate. If, in the expectation of discovery, an association of persons marks the boundary of a placer claim containing twenty acres for each associate, I have no doubt that they will be protected in their possession while they proceed with reasonable diligence to prospect the claim, and that by a discovery they will perfect it; but if some of the associates withdraw before discovery or attempt to assign their claims to those who continue the work of development, those who remain will have no right to a claim greater in the aggregate than they could have taken by an original location.