Noyes v. Mantle

• Decision Date: 30 April 1888
• Citation: 127 U.S. 348,32 L.Ed. 168,8 S.Ct. 1132
• Parties: NOYES v. MANTLE et al. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

8 S.Ct. 1132

127 U.S. 348

32 L.Ed. 168

NOYES v. MANTLE et al.¹

April 30, 1888.

T. L. Napton, for appellant.

S. S. Burdett, for appellees.

FIELD, J.

*This is a suit in equity to determine the adverse claims of the defendant below, appellant here, to a certain quartz lode mining claim, known as the 'Pay Streak Lode,' in Summit Valley mining district, in the county of Silver Bow, in the territory of Montana. The plaintiffs below assert title to the claim as grantees of Daniel Zinn and John O. McEwan, who discovered and located it on the 23d of April, 1878, under the provisions of the act of congress of May 10, 1872, which are re-enacted, in the Revised Statutes, tit. 32, c. 6. The defendant below asserts title to the lode claim under a patent of the United States issued to him on the 23d of April, 1880, for a placer mining claim, which includes that lode within its boundaries. The application for the patent was made December 14, 1878. Several interrogatories touching matters in issue were submitted to a jury called by the court, though sitting in the exercise of its equity jurisdiction. Their findings in answer to the interrogatories were, with one exception, adopted by the court. The excepted finding gave an erroneous date to the application of the defendant for the patent, and was therefore set aside. The court thereupon found the fact as to the date as it appeared from the evidence. Upon the facts thus established the court rendered its decree. They were substantially these: That on and prior to December 14, 1878, a vein or lode of quartz bearing gold and silver was known to exist in the ground in controversy; that its existence could have been readily ascertained by any person examining the ground with an honest purpose to inform himself of the fact; that in the month of April, 1878, Zinn and McEwan, the grantors and predecessors in interest of the plaintiffs, discovered in the ground a vein or lode of quartz bearing gold ad silver, and they posted a notice claiming the ground, and the vein or lode which it included; that at the same time they marked off the ground by stakes, so that its boundaries could be readily traced; that they named the claim in their notice of location as the 'Pay Streak Lode,' and within 20 days after its discovery filed in the proper office of the county a notice of their claim, and of its location, such as was usual where lode claims were located in that mining district; that in July, 1881, they conveyed to the plaintiffs all their interest in the claim; that in August, 1881, before the commencement of this suit, the plaintiffs caused a survey of the claim to be made, and its boundaries marked so as to be readily traced; that they then relocated the claim, of which notice within 20 days thereafter was filed in the recorder's office of the county; and that they were in its possession at the commencement of this suit. The jury did not find that the existence of a vein or lode in the ground in controversy was known to the defendant at the time of his application for a patent; and reported that they were unable to agree on this point. The district court, in which the suit was brought, did not consider that this want of a finding on the question of knowledge by the defendant affected the position of the plaintiffs, and it rendered a decree adjudging that the right of possession to the lode claim was in them, and that the defendant had no title, estate, or interest therein, and that he be enjoined from asserting or claiming any as against them. The supreme court of the territory affirmed the decree, holding that the title to the lode mining claim had passed to the grantors of the plaintiffs by their discovery and location under the statute, and that the subsequent patent to the defendant of a placer claim did not affect their title to the lode claim, for that title was not then subject to the disposition of the government. The court also held that the lode claim was known to exist within the meaning of the statute when it had been located pursuant to its requirements, whether knowledge of its existence was possessed or not by the defendant at the time he made his application for a patent. These rulings constitute the only matters meriting consideration in this court.

Section 2322 of the Revised Statutes, re-enacting provisions of the act of congress of May 10, 1872, (17 St. 91,) declares that the locators of mining locations previously made, or which should thereafter be made, on any mineral vein, lode, or ledge on the public domain, their heirs and assign, where no adverse claim existed on the 10th of May, 1872, shall have the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all the surface included within the lines of their locations, so long as they comply with the laws of the United States, and with state, territorial, and local regulations, not in conflict with those laws governing their possessory title. There is no pretense in this case that the original...