Silliman v. Powell

• Decision Date: 02 March 1982
• Docket Number: No. 17054,17054
• Citation: 642 P.2d 388
• Parties: Kenneth N. SILLIMAN, et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Rex T. POWELL, et al., Defendants and Respondents.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 388

642 P.2d 388

Kenneth N. SILLIMAN, et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Rex T. POWELL, et al., Defendants and Respondents.

No. 17054.

Supreme Court of Utah.

March 2, 1982.

John Preston Creer, Brent D. Ward, Brian T. Stewart, Salt Lake City, for plaintiffs and appellants.

Duane A. Frandsen, Price, A. J. Coffman, Moab, for defendants and respondents.

HOWE, Justice:

Plaintiffs commenced this action to quiet title to certain unpatented lode mining claims in Grand County, Utah, and to recover damages for slander of title and for the removal of ore from some of the claims. Defendants counterclaimed to have title quieted in them. From a judgment in favor of the defendants based on a finding of plaintiffs' failure to meet the statutory assessment work requirement, plaintiffs appeal attacking that finding.

Plaintiff Silliman is the successor in interest of Utah Alloy Ores to approximately 84 mining claims and one millsite in the Yellow Cat mining district in Grand County. These claims are of value for their uranium and vanadium content. They stretch over a distance of approximately four miles and include groups of multiple claims that are generally adjacent or connected by at least one point of reference. Silliman first began performing assessment work on the claims in 1948 while associated with Utah Alloy Ores and since the early 1950's has been involved with their development. During the period from 1948 to 1972 there was continuous mining activity on them.

The dispute in this case arose as a consequence of the location by defendants in the years 1974 to 1978 of claims overlying those of plaintiffs. During that period the Powell defendants located a total of 97 claims, which conflicted with all but approximately 12 of plaintiffs' claims. Also conflicting with plaintiffs' claims were 24 claims located by the defendants Teares or their predecessors in interest between June 1977 and May 1978. The defendants Rowes and Penromers, who were also parties to this lawsuit, entered into separate settlement stipulations with plaintiffs, and their claims are not at issue here.

Although there was testimony that the required location monuments and identifying notices were no longer visible on plaintiffs' claims, this circumstance was apparently not a factor in the trial court's decision. Rather, the judgment was based on the conclusion that the assessment work done by plaintiffs was insufficient to meet the federal requirement that $100 worth of labor be expended yearly to benefit each claim held under a valid location. ¹

The major portion of the work claimed as assessment work by plaintiffs was done by Silliman or his son (and on one occasion by a third party) with a Caterpillar D-6 B bulldozer. Silliman calculated the value of his operation of the bulldozer at $50 per hour, determined on the basis of the cost of another operator working under his direct supervision. The figure was disputed by defendants who introduced evidence that a reasonable charge for such work would have ranged from $15 per hour in 1972 to $40 in 1979. Silliman described his work as stripping or removing the overburden from potential ore bodies, constructing drill sites for future drilling, preserving existing mine workings, maintaining and improving existing roads, and constructing new roads "on or about" plaintiffs' claims. He asserted that the roads facilitated the development and mining of the claims by providing access to the claims and the ore bodies thereunder for drilling rigs, ore trucks and other necessary vehicles.

Broken down by pertinent assessment years, the following amounts of work were claimed in testimony by Silliman:

For the assessment year ending September 1, 1973, he testified that he spent 212 hours working on the claims for a value of $10,600 which exceeds the minimum amount of $8,400 that would be necessary to protect all 84 claims from relocation. The Powells located 20 claims in April 1974 which conflicted with 8 of plaintiffs' claims.

For the year ending September 1, 1974, Silliman claimed to have worked 203 hours on the claims for a value of $10,150. In the following year the Powells located 68 claims that conflicted with plaintiffs' claims based on their belief that plaintiffs had not done sufficient assessment work.

For the year ending September 1, 1975, Silliman testified he did 212 hours of work valued at $10,600. Again, based on alleged deficiencies in the assessment work, the Powells the following year located nine additional claims which conflicted with 22 of plaintiffs' claims.

For the year ending September 1, 1976, Silliman claimed he built additional drill sites and performed road maintenance, spending 227 hours, and did drilling work that continued into the next assessment year. The Teares located claims in 1977 which conflicted with eight plaintiffs' claims. Additional Teares claims were located the following year, after plaintiffs allegedly performed 210 hours in assessment work on portions of their claims. Included in the work claimed for the year ending September 1, 1977 was 1,060 feet of drilling which penetrated ore bearing formation.

Plaintiffs also introduced evidence of assessment work done in the year following the disputed period as probative of their good faith in continuing to develop their mining claims.

As to the road work done by Silliman, he testified that his primary concern was to maintain not every road on the property but those main roads that were necessary for the transporting of drills and other equipment to the claims. Photographs were introduced by defendants that showed a lack of maintenance, e.g., sod, rocks and sagebrush were in the roadways that were allegedly cleared and maintained by Silliman. Silliman nevertheless insisted that he had performed sufficient assessment work during the period of time in question which was intended to benefit all of his claims pursuant to a general plan for their development.

The trial court found against the plaintiffs and quieted title in the defendants to all their mining claims. Plaintiffs appeal contending that (1) the trial court erred by misapplying the standards of law applicable to the common development of associated mining claims; (2) the trial court erred in allocating the burden of proof as to the performance of the assessment work; and (3) the trial court erred in not applying the doctrine of apportionment.

We are unable to determine whether any of the foregoing assignments of error have any validity because the findings of fact are couched in ambiguous, indefinite and conclusory terms that do not allow us to determine whether the trial judge correctly applied the law to the facts.

In its Finding of Fact No. 13 the trial court found that:

$100.00 of labor was not performed nor improvements made as required by 30 U.S.C.A. Section 28, on plaintiffs' claims involved in this action which conflict with defendants POWELLS' claims as set forth in Exhibit B for the assessment years ending September 1, 1973, 1974, and 1975. There was also no resumption of assessment work between the end of the aforementioned assessment years and the date of location of the claims of defendants POWELLS set forth in Exhibit B.

Similarly, in Finding No. 14, 15 and 16, the court found that "plaintiffs also failed to do sufficient assessment work of $100.00 for each mining claim involved in this lawsuit, which conflicts with the mining claims of defendants TEARES ... defendants ROWES ... and defendants PENROMERS ... for the assessment years ending September 1, 1976 and 1977." These findings are followed by a conclusory finding, Finding No. 17, which states:

At the time each of the claims of defendants was located, the ground areas involved had reverted to the status of public domain and were open to relocation by reason of plaintiffs' failure to do sufficient assessment work to the amount of $100.00 for each of said mining claims owned by plaintiff.

These findings are not explicit and free from ambiguity. While they state that the required assessment work was not done on each of the claims, they leave us in doubt as to whether sufficient work was done on any of the 84 claims or whether any work at all was done. Even if we were to assume that they mean that the required assessment work was not done on any of the claims, the validity of this assumption is obscured by Finding No. 18 which states that "(T)he court is unable to make a finding as to the value of assessment work performed by plaintiff on any particular claim or group of claims for any of the assessment years in question." We are not sure if this means (1) that the court simply was unable to find any value at all to plaintiffs' work, (2) that the court found no work was done at all, or (3) that the court was truly refraining from making any finding on the subject of the value of the plaintiffs' work. As the determiner of fact, the trial court is required to make findings on all material issues. Romrell v. Zions First National Bank, Utah, 611 P.2d 392 (1980); Rucker v. Dalton, Utah, 598 P.2d 1336 (1979).

There is another problem with the indefiniteness of the findings. Finding No. 18 states that "... the assessment work claimed by plaintiffs to satisfy the annual assessment work requirement is not of such character or amount to benefit the entire group of plaintiffs' claims to the extent of $100.00 for each claim." This finding contemplates too high a requirement. Plaintiffs must only do $100.00 worth of work on those claims which were located over by the defendants in the following year. For example, in the first year involved here defendants Powells located 20 claims. It would only be on the plaintiffs' eight claims underlying these 20 claims that the required assessment work would have to be done in the preceding year in order to defeat the relocated claims of defendants-not $100.00 worth of work on all 84 claims of plaintiffs.

Although the defendants vigorously attacked the...