Champion Mining Co. v. Consol. Wyoming Gold Mining Co.

Citations

• 75 Cal. 78

Syllabus

<p>Mining Claims—Union of Veins—Prior Locator Entitled to below Junction—Evidence of Prior Location.—The action was between the owners of two adjoining quartz mining claims, the respective veins of which united below the surface of the ground, and involved the determination of the question as to who was entitled to the vein below the point of junction. Under section 2336 of the United States Revised Statutes, where veins so unite, the oldest or prior location is entitled to the vein below the point of junction. The defendant claimed under a patent from the United States, dated the 19th of September, 1874, and on the trial introduced in evidence the preliminary papers and proceeding in the United States land-office upon which the patent was based, for the purpose of showing a valid location prior to the date of the patent. The court found that no valid location of the plaintiff’s claim was made until 1879. Held, that the defendant’s location must be considered as having been made at least from the date of its patent, and that the introduction of evidence to show a prior location, conceding it to have been erroneous, was immaterial.</p> <p>Id.—Injunction — Threatening to Work Claim.—A plaintiff, claiming . to be the owner of a mining location, is not entitled to an injunction to restrain the defendant from mining upon such location, if the defendant never has mined thereon, and never has threatened to do so.</p> <p>Id.—Adjoining End Lines — Divergence of End Lines.—Where the north end line of one quartz mining claim is identical with the south end line of an adjoining claim, at a place where the ledge crosses from the ground of one into that of the other, and such end lines at another place diverge, the owners of the claims have the entire ownership of the ledge included within their extreme end lines, with the exclusive right to follow its dips and angles laterally; and may, as against a subsequent locator, agree between themselves as to the right to work the portion