Kendall v. San Juan Silver Min

• Decision Date: 25 April 1892
• Citation: 12 S.Ct. 779,144 U.S. 658,36 L.Ed. 583
• Parties: KENDALL et al. v. SAN JUAN SILVER MIN. Co
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

144 U.S. 658

12 S.Ct. 779

36 L.Ed. 583

KENDALL et al. v. SAN JUAN SILVER MIN. Co.

April 25, 1892.

[Statement of Case from pages 658-660 intentionally omitted] E. T. Wells and R. T. McNeal, for plaintiffs in error.

A. T. Britton and A. B. Browne, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice FIELD delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendant, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Colorado, in October, 1880, applied to the proper land office in that state for a mineral patent for a lode claim known as the 'Titusville Lode,' in San Juan county, which was 1,500 feet in length by 300 feet in width. Within the time prescribed by statute, and during the month, the appellants here, Kendall and others, filed in the same land office an adverse claim for a portion of the premises of which the defendant desired to obtain a patent, asserting a prior and superior right to the same, as part of a lode known as 'Bear Lode,' which they had discovered on the 3d of September, 1872, and upon which they had sunk a discovery shaft, and performed the several acts required to perfect a mineral location under the laws of the United States and the local rules and customs of miners. Within 30 days thereafter they brought the present action under section 2326 of the Revised Statutes, to determine, as between the parties, the right of possession to the disputed premises, the issue of a patent for the same being dependent upon such determination. In their complaint they allege the performance of the labor required, and all other acts necessary to preserve the lode from forfeiture. That lode, as originally located, extended 1,500 feet in length and 100 feet on each side of the center of the vein. In October, 1878, the locators filed an additional certificate of location in the local land office, claiming 150 feet on each side of the center. And they aver that the Titusville lode, claimed by the defendant corporation, is a junior location, and includes in length 1,200 feet of the surface ground of the Bear lode, and in width covers more than the south half of the surface ground for the 1,200 feet.

The defendant, in its answer, denies that the ground in controversy comprised part of the unappropriated public domain of the United States, and that it was open to location on the 3d day of September, 1872, as set forth by the plaintiffs, and alleges that at that date the ground embraced a portion of a certain tract of land which, by treaty between the United States and certain confederated bands of the Ute Indians in Colorado, concluded March 2, 1868, and proclaimed on the 6th of November of the same year, had been reserved for the use and occupancy of the Indians, and that the Indian title to the tract was not extinguished until March, 1874. 15 St. p. 619. The answer also alleges that the Titusville lode claim was located on the 29th day of August, 1874; that all acts were done necessary to constitute a valid location of the premises; and that the legal title to the lode, and the right to its possession, had, by various conveyances from the original locators, become vested in the defendant; and it prays judgment therefor.

By the terms of the treaty mentioned, a tract of country, which included the mining property in question, was set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians therein named, and for such other friendly tribes or individual Indians as, from time to time, they might be willing, with the consent of the United States, to admit among them; and the United States agreed that no persons except those designated, and such officers, agents, and employes of the government as might be authorized to enter upon Indian reservations in discharge of duties enjoined by law, should ever be permitted to 'pass over, settle...