Butte & Superior Copper Co. v. Clark-Montana Realty Co.

Citations

• 249 U.S. 12
• 39 S. Ct. 231
• 63 L. Ed. 447
• 1919 U.S. LEXIS 2220

Syllabus

<p>In a suit brought in the District Court to determine extralateral rights • .between patented mining claims, the complaint averred-that the construction and application of §§ 2.322-2332 of the Revised Statute^ were involved, set up the-' discoveiy, location and patent of plaintiffs’ claim, and, to meet a- defect .of the location notice under the state law, averred actual, open, exclusive and uninterrupted possession and working of the plaintiffs’ claim for more than five years from the date of discovery, the limitation period provided by § 2332. Held, that the latter allegations were part of plaintiffs’ case, and involved a construction and application of § 2332, and hence the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals was reviewable in this court by appeal. Pp. 20-23.</p> <p>In detenrining cxtralateral rights between adjoining patented mining claims, a failure, of the earlier location notice to comply with the state law is immaterial if the junior locator, at the time of locating, knew that the earlier locator was in possession -of and working his claim. The purpose of a location notice is but to give warning of the prior appropriation. P. 26.</p> <p>The unequivocal possession of a mining claim gives constructive notice of the possessor's rights thereunder. Id.</p> <p>A.s between two patented mining claims, priority of right to the vein of the one where it dips beneath, and unites with the vein of, the other is not determined by the dates of entries and patents bin by priority of discovery and location. P. 27.</p> <p>In the absence from the record of an adverse suit, there is no presumption that anything was considered and determined by the Land Department, in patenting a mining claim, except the question of the right to the surface. Id.</p> <p>An application to patent a lode mining claim invites only such con- • tests as affect the surface; and where no’ surface conflict involves the apex, a prior' locator of an adjacent unpatented, claim is not obliged to adverse