Sparks v. Pierce

• Decision Date: 16 November 1885
• Citation: 29 L.Ed. 428,6 S.Ct. 102,115 U.S. 408
• Parties: SPARKS and another v. PIERCE and others. 1 Filed
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

6 S.Ct. 102

115 U.S. 408

29 L.Ed. 428

SPARKS and another v. PIERCE and others.¹

Filed November 16, 1885.

This is an action to recover a parcel of mining ground, situated in Lawrence county, in the territory of Dakota, and claimed by the plaintiffs under a patent of the United States, bearing date March 22, 1880, and issued to them upon an entry made November 30, 1877. The complaint alleges that on the eleventh of December, 1878, the plaintiffs were the owners in fee and possessed of the demanded premises, deriving their title under the said patent of the United States, founded upon the entry mentioned; that afterwards, on the twelfth of said December, while they were thus seized and possessed of the premises, the defendants, without right or title, entered upon them, ousted the plaintiffs therefrom, and have ever since unlawfully withheld them, to the damage of the plaintiffs of $500. It also alleges that the value of the rents and profits of the premises from the entry of the defendants has been $10 a month; and it prays judgment for the possession of the premises, for the damages sustained, and for the rents and profits lost.

The answer of the defendants denies generally the several allegations of the complaint, except as stated therein, and then sets up specially, by way of counter-claim, various matters which they contend constitute in equity a good defense to the action, and entitle them to a portion, at least, of the demanded premises, or to compensation for their improvements thereon. The matters set forth as grounds for equitable relief are alleged upon information and belief, and are substantially these: That on the twenty-eighth of February, 1877, the land in controversy, with other land adjacent thereto, was appropriated and occupied as a town-site and for town-site purposes, and as such was laid out into lots, blocks, streets, and alleys, and designated as Central City, having at that time about 100 inhabitants; that this number increased until, on March 22, 1880, the date of the plaintiffs' patent, the place became an important one, containing about 2,000 inhabitants; that on the said twenty-eighth of February, 1877, the grantor of the defendants was in the peaceful occupation and possession of the land in controversy as a lot in said Central City, and that on the twelfth of December, 1878, he sold them the lot, with the improvements thereon, for a valuable consideration; that after the said twenty-eighth of February, 1877, the plaintiffs, without legal right, caused certain ground within the town-site, including that in controversy, to be surveyed for a placer mining claim, and an application for a patent based upon that survey to be filed in the United States land-office at Deadwood, in the county of Lawrence; that within the time required by law the inhabitants of the town, including the grantor of the defendants, filed a protest in the land-office against the issuing of the patent, basing the protest upon the ground, among other things, that the land was subject to the prior rights of the town-site occupants, and was not mineral; but that, notwithstanding the protest, the local land-officers, on the thirtieth of November, 1877, represcribed from the plaintiffs the price of the land as a placer claim, and the fees prescribed by law, and allowed their entry of the same; that, subsequently, on the twenty-second of April, 1878, the commis- sioner of the general land-office reviewed the proceedings, and directed that a patent issue to the plaintiffs for the mining claim, but with a reservation from the grant of all town property, rights upon the surface, and all lots, blocks, streets, and alleys, and all houses, buildings, and improvements thereon not belonging to the plaintiffs, and all rights necessary to the occupation and enjoyment of the same; that, subsequently, on the seventh of November, 1878, the commissioner suspended the entry, and ordered that a hearing be had before the officers of the local land-office, to determine the date when the land was first occupied as a townsite, the nature and extent of such occupancy, and the improvements thereon, and whether the land was mineral or non-mineral in its character; that such hearing was commenced on the twenty-sixth of November, 1878; that both parties submitted their testimony to the local officers. who. on the twentieth of January, 1879, decided in substance that the land was valuable for mineral, but...