Iron Silver Mining Co. v. Mike & Starr Gold & Silver Mining Co.

Citations

• 143 U.S. 394
• 12 S. Ct. 543
• 36 L. Ed. 201
• 1892 U.S. LEXIS 2032

Syllabus

<p>1 Thetefm ■“ known vein ” Rev. Stat. § 2333 refers to a vein or lode whose existepc;e is known, as contradistinguished from one which has been appropriated by location. The title to portions of a horizontal vein or 1 deposit, generally called a “ blanket vein,” may be acquired under the ¡sections of the Revised Statutes concerning veins, lodes, etc,</p> <p>In ejectment for the possession of a mine, the plaintiff claimed under a placer patent, issued January 30, 1880, on an application made November 13, 1878, and entry and payment made February 21, 1879. The defendant claimed under a location certificate of a lode issued to one Goodell, dated March 10, and recorded March 11, 1879, reciting a location February 1, 1879. The defendant, to maintain its claim, offered the testimony of several witnesses, whieh established beyond any doubt that in 1877, and more than a year before any proceedings were initiated with reference to ^the placer patent, the grantors of defendant entered upon and ran a tu’inel some 400 feet in length into and through that ground which after- . wards was patented as the placer tract; and that in running such tunnel they intersected and crossed three veins, one of which was thereafter, and in 1879, located as the Goodell vein or lode. The vein thus crossed and disclosed by the tunnel was from seventy-five to seventy-eight feet from its mouth', of about fifteen inches in width, with distinct walls of porphyry on either side, a vein whose existence was obvious to even a casual inspectipn by any one passing through the tunnel. At the trial the court ruled that if the vein was known to the placer patentee at or before entry and payment, although not known at the time of the application for patent, it was excepted from the property conveyed. Held,</p> <p>(1) That this vein was a known vein at the time of the application for the placer patent;</p> <p>(2) That the plaintiff was hound, to know of the existence of the tunnel, and what an examination of i