Socrates Quicksilver Mines v. Carr Realty Co.

Citations

• 130 F. 293
• 64 C.C.A. 539
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4156

Syllabus

<p>1 Equity — Relief against Fraud — Laches.</p> <p>A bill by one claiming under part of the locators of a mining claim, seeking relief against fraud by which the other locators obtained a patent to the entire claim, is demurrable on the ground of laches, having been filed 34 years after the beginning of the fraud, and 28 years after its consummation, where there was nothing to show that complainant’s grantors had actual possession of the ground after the making of the application for the patent, and it affirmatively appeared that from a short time thereafter the whole of the property was held adversely to them by defendants and those under whom they claim; that immediately after issuance of the patent the patentees and their successors in interest expressly repudiated and ignored any interest of complainant’s grantors, and claimed the whole property; that many of the parties whose acts are complained of have died; that for 30 years after application for the patent no work was done on the property, and that thereafter work was done for 3 years at a loss, but that at the commencement of the suit the property was worth 3500,000.</p>