Mootry v. Hawley

• Decision Date: 01 January 1874
• Citation: 1 Idaho 543
• Parties: Thomas Mootry Et Al., Appellants, v. James H. Hawley Et Al., Respondents.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

1 Idaho 543

Thomas Mootry Et Al., Appellants, v. James H. Hawley Et Al., Respondents.

Supreme Court of Idaho

January 1, 1874

EVIDENCE-CONFLICT-NEW TRIAL.-The appellate court will not disturb a judgment or verdict, or order denying a new trial, where there is a substantial conflict in the testimony, and no rule of law appears to have been violated.

APPEAL from the District Court of the Second Judicial District Boise County.

Geo Ainslie and Prickett & Hasbrouck, for the Appellants Huston &amp Gray, for the Respondents.

NOGGLE C. J.

In this case the plaintiffs claim a certain gold mine known as a quartz lead, or lode, named the Lone Star lode, near the Gold Hill quartz lode, in Boise county, Idaho territory, and the said plaintiffs have brought their ejectment suit, claiming the said lode, and to recover possession of the same from the defendants.

The defendants appeared on the thirty-first day of August, 1872 and answering, denied, upon information and belief, that plaintiffs and their grantors are now, or have been, for more than eight years last past, the owners of, or in the quiet, peaceable, and exclusive and undisturbed possession of that certain quartz lode or ledge, containing precious metals of gold and silver, known as the Lone Star ledge or lode, lying and being situated in Granite mining district, Boise county, Idaho territory, and more particularly described in plaintiffs' complaint, to which reference is here made. The defendants also, upon information and belief; deny that the so-called Lone Star ledge is worth the sum of fifty thousand dollars, or any sum whatever; they also deny that there is a large amount of goldbearing quartz in said Lone Star ledge, or any amount whatever, and they deny that said Lone Star ledge contains any gold whatever. The defendants also deny that they have at any time or in any manner whatever, entered upon or taken possession of the said Lone Star lode, and ousted the plaintiffs therefrom; they also deny that they did, on the eighteenth day of June, 1872, or at any other time, enter upon, or in any manner take possession of said Lone Star lode, for the purpose of working thereon, or that they, in any manner, retain the possession of the same, from the said plaintiffs, for any purpose whatever. In short, the defendants deny every material allegation in said complaint, and in their answer the said defendants claim that the said plaintiffs had abandoned...