Brown v. Yarraham Gold Mining Co.

SMITH, J.

The suit is brought for the recovery of the mining claim known as the “Bryan Gold Mine,” described in the complaint as situate in section 24, T. 29 S., R. 34 E., M. D. B., with damages, etc., and for an injunction. The plaintiff had judgment, and the defendants appeal from an order denying their motion for a new trial.

Section 24 is government land, unappropriated' unless by the plaintiff’s claim. Section 13 adjoining it on the north has been patented to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company; from which, under a contract of sale, the corporation defend

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ant has derived a possessory title. The principal question in the case is as to the location of the boundary between the two sections named. According to the location claimed by the plaintiff:, this line is to the north of the mine; according to the claim of the defendants, it is south of the mine and about half a mile south of the location claimed by the plaintiff. The court adopted the plaintiff’s location and found the mine to be in section 24.

The defendants claim that this finding is not supported by the evidence; but we are of the opinion that this contention is without merit. The township in question was surveyed by Carlton in the year 1876. The township next to the east (T. 29 S., R. 35 E.) had been previously surveyed and subdivided by Washburn in the year 1854, and again, presumably to correct errors, in the year 1855. On the line between these two townships no monuments have been found. But in the township in question (T. 29 S., R. 34 E.) monuments have been found at the common corner of sections 14,15,22, 23, and at the corner of sections 3, 4, 33, 34; and also at the quarter section corner between sections 3 and 4, and at the southwest corner of the township. These all connect and agree with the location of the northeast corner of section 24, or southeast corner of section 13, as claimed by the plaintiff, and found by the court. The southeast corner of the township, as described in the field-notes of Carlton, being seventeen and thirty one-hundredths chains north of the intersection of Cottonwood creek with the meridian line, also agrees with this location; as is the case also with the corner of sections 3, 4, 9, 10 of T. 30 S., R. 35 E., as shown by Carlton’s field-notes. These facts would seem to fix the location of the disputed corner of sections of 13, 24, 19, 18, beyond controversy; and notwithstanding the conflicting facts developed by the defendants, would seem to be sufficient to support the findings.