Leonidas Lawson v. United States Mining Company

Decision Date21 October 1907
Docket NumberNo. 2,2
Citation207 U.S. 1,52 L.Ed. 65,28 S.Ct. 15
PartiesLEONIDAS M. LAWSON, William J. Harvey, Edward Balbach, Jr., et al., Petitioners, v. UNITED STATES MINING COMPANY
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

This suit was commenced in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Utah by the United States Mining Company, claiming to be the owner of certain mining property, and praying that its title thereto be quieted and the defendant restrained from taking any ore therefrom. Jurisdiction was founded on diverse citizenship. In an amended complaint, filed June 2, 1902, it was alleged that the plaintiff is the owner and in possession of four mining claims known as the Jordan Extension, the Northern Light, the Grizzly, and the Fairview lode mining claims, the boundaries of each being given; that these mining claims are adjacent to each other and to certain other mining claims, all owned and worked by the plaintiff as one property for mining purposes; that beneath the surface of the claims above mentioned is a vein or lode of great value; that the defendants wrongfully claim to own said vein or lode and the ores and minerals therein contained; that they have, by means of secret underground works, obtained access thereto and have mined, extracted, and removed large quantities of valuable ores therefrom; that they threaten to continue such wrongful and unlawful invasion of the premises, and to continue to mine, extract, and remove ores and minerals; that the defendants are in possession of a mining claim adjacent to the four mining claims of plaintiff, known as the Kempton mining claim, united States lot 255, which was located in the year 1871, and, on information and belief, that the defendants pretend that the mineral deposits and ores under and beneath the surface of the four mining claims above mentioned are in and part of a mineral vein and lode belonging to and haveing its apex in said Kempton mining claim and on the dip of said alleged vein, which pretense the plaintiff charges to be contrary to the truth. The plaintiff further alleges that it is the owner and in possession of two certain mining claims, one named the Jordan Silver Mining Company's mine, but usually known as the 'Old Jordan,' located December 17, 1863; the other the Mountain Gem Lode and Mining claim located August 20, 1864, the boundaries of each of which are given that in these two claims there is a lode, bearing silver and other metals, whose apex is within the surface boundaries; that the dip of said lodes is toward the Kempton claim occupied by the defendants, and that if there be any mineral vein or lode in the Kempton claim it is not one that has its apex within the limits of that claim, but is a part of the lodes apexing within the 'Old Jordan' and Mountain Gem claims. The relief prayed for was a decree quieting plaintiff's title and restraining the defendants from mining and removing any ores or minerals. To this amended complaint the defendants filed a demurrer, stating, as one of the grounds thereof, that the plaintiff had an adequate remedy at law. This demurrer was overruled, and thereupon the defendants filed an answer and subsequently an amended answer, setting forth their title to the Kempton mining claim, and also to a claim known as the Ashland mining claim, and alleging that there are lodes whose apices are within these claims; that on their dip they enter beneath the surface of the plaintiff's claims, and that it is upon them that defendants have been mining; that the Kempton claim was patented to their grantors and predecessors in interest on February 23, 1875. They further deny that the 'Old Jordan' claim was located on December 17, 1863, or patented July 14, 1877; deny that the Mountain Gem claim was located on August 20, 1864, or that a patent had been issued on said alleged location. They further aver that if there be any lode or vein in either the 'Old Jordan' or the Mountain Gem claims, that such lode or vein is entirely distinct from those which have their apices in the Kempton and Ashland claims. On the hearing the court denied the application of the defendants to set the case for trial as a law case before a jury. At the same time it entered a decree dismissing the plaintiff's bill. From this decree the plaintiff appealed to the circuit court of appeals (67 C. C. A. 587, 134 Fed. 769), which reversed the decree of dismissal, and remanded the case with instructions to enter a decree for the plaintiff in conformity with the prayer of the bill. Thereupon on application of the defendants, the case was brought to this court on certiorari.

[ Messrs. Charles J. Hughes, Jr., Ogden Hiles, and Charles C. Dey for petitioners.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 4-6 intentionally omitted] Messrs. William H. Dickson, George Sutherland, A. C. Ellis, A. C. Ellis, Jr., E. M. Allison, and Waldemar Van Cott for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 6-8 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the court:

The first question is whether the plaintiff can maintain this suit in equity without a prior adjudication in an action at law of its legal title. The bill alleges ownership and possession. It supported this allegation by patents from the United States of the first four claims mentioned in the bill, and proved that the defendants were working on a vein or body of mineral beneath the surface and extracting ores therefrom. The bill has a double aspect, to quiet title and to restrain defendants from removing any more ores from beneath the surface of these claims. Title by patent from the United States to a tract of ground, theretofore public, prima facie carries ownership of all beneath the surface, and possession under such patent of the surface is presumptively possession of all beneath the surface. This is the general law of real estate. True, in respect to mining property, this presumption of title to mineral beneath the surface may be overthrown by proof that such mineral is a part of a vein apexing in a claim belonging to some other party. But this is a matter of defense; and while proof of ownership of the spex may be proof of the ownership of the vein descending on its dip below the surface of property belonging to another, yet such ownership of the apex must first be established before any extralateral title to the vein can be recognized. This suit was not in the nature of an ejectment, to put the defendants out of possession of the space beneath the surface of plaintiff's claims from which they had extracted ore, but to quiet the title of the plaintiff to the vein in which they had been working, and to restrain them from mining and removing any more ore.

Sec. 3511, Utah Rev. Stat. 1898, reads:

'Sec. 3511. An action may be brought by any person against another who claims an estate or interest in real property adverse to him, for the purpose of determining such adverse claim.'

A statute of a similar character was before this court in Holland v. Challen, 110 U. S. 15, 28 L. ed. 52, 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 495, and it was held that under it a suit might be maintained by one out of possession against another also out of possession, to quiet the title of the former to the premises. It was said, quoting from a prior opinion, that it was 'a case in which an enlargement of equitable rights is effected, although presented in the form of a remedial proceeding.' It was also said (p. 20) :

'To maintain a suit of this character it was generally necessary that the plaintiff should be in possession of the property, and, except where the defendants were numerous, that his title should have been established at law or be founded on undisputed evidence or long-continued possession. Alexander v. Pendleton, 8 Cranch, 462, 3 L. ed. 624; Peirsoll v. Elliott, 6 Pet. 95, 8 L. ed. 332; Orton v. Smith, 18 How. 263, 15 L. ed. 393.

'The statute of Nebraska suthorizes a suit in either of these classes of cases without reference to any previous judicial determination of the validity of the plaintiff's right, and without reference to his possession. Any person claiming title to real estate, whether in or out of possession, may maintain the suit against one who claims an adverse estate or interest in it, for the purpose of determining such estate and quieting the title.'

The same question was considered and decided in the same way in respect to a suit based upon a similar statute, in Iowa, in Wehrman v. Conklin, 155 U. S. 314, 39 L. ed. 167, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 129. Of course, as pointed out in Whitehead v. Shattuck, 138 U. S. 146, 34 L. ed. 873, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 276, such a statute cannot be relied upon in the Federal courts to sustain a bill in equity by one out of possession against one in possession, for an action at law in the nature of an action of ejectment affords a perfectly adequate legal remedy. There is nothing in the point decided in Boston & M. Consol. Copper & S. Min. Co. v. Montana Ore Purchasing Co. 188 U. S. 632, 47 L. ed. 626, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 434, which, rightly considered, conflicts with the case of Holland v. Challen.

It will be further borne in mind that this question was raised by demurrer to the plaintiff's bill and by motion after the plaintiff had finished its testimony and before the defendants had introduced theirs, and was not renewed at the close of the trial, althought until then the motion was not decided. At the time the motion was made the case presented was one of a clear legal title to the four mining claims by patent from the United States, and an unauthorized entry by subterranean workings into the ground below the surface and the mining and extracting of ores therefrom,—a case for restraint by injunction, which was part of the relief asked for in the bill. It is insisted that in Park v. Wilkinson, 21 Utah, 279, 81 Am. St. Rep. 693, 60 Pac. 945, the supreme court of that state has given a different construction to the statute, but in this we think counsel are...

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