Powers v. United States

Citations

• 119 F. 562
• 56 C.C.A. 128
• 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4794

Syllabus

<p>1. Public Lands—Unlawful Cutting of Timber—Action bt United States.</p> <p>The United States may maintain an action to recover the value of timber cut from unsurveyed mineral lands to which its title has not been devested, notwithstanding the locating of mining claims thereon by third parties.</p> <p>2. Trial to Court—Special Findings of Fact.</p> <p>In an action at law in a circuit court, where a jury is waived by stipulation, pursuant to Rev. St. § 649 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 525], and special findings are made by the court, such findings must state the ultimate facts, presenting questions of law only, and, where only probative facts are found, leaving ultimate facts necessary to support the judgment to be inferred, the judgment must be reversed, and a new trial ordered.</p> <p>8. Public Lands—Unlawful Cutting of Timber—Measure of Damages.</p> <p>One who cut and removed timber from public mineral lands, which he converted into lumber and sold for the purposes permitted by Act June 3, 1878 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1528], is not liable, as a willful trespasser, for the added value of the timber due to his labor and expense, merely because of his failure to keep the record required by the rules prescribed by the general land office pursuant to such act, if he believed in good faith that he was a resident of the state in such sense as to be within the terms of the act, and where his failure to keep the record was due to his ignorance that it was required.</p>