Morse v. De Ardo

Henshaw, J. Appeal from the judgment.

The action is to foreclose a lien upon defendants’ property for labor performed upon a mine situated thereon.

Defendant De Ardo was the owner under patent from the United States for agricultural lands of a farm containing about one hundred and sixty acres. He had sunk a shaft upon his land and discovered a bed of auriferous gravel. He had then bonded his land to his codefendant, Howes, with privilege to Howes of working the gravel deposit and developing the mine. Howes engaged plaintiffs in and about this work, and, having failed to pay them, they seek by this action to enforce [623]a lien upon the land as a mining claim under section 1183 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The single question presented by this appeal is whether land held under agricultural patent may be subjected to a lien for the wages of laborers employed in working a mine upon it.

The constitution, article XX, section 15, in securing liens to mechanics and others for the value of their labor, has left to the legislature the duty of providing for the enforcement of these liens. In performance of this duty the legislature has enacted that “ every person who performs labor upon any mining claim has a lien upon the same,” etc. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1183.)

At the time of the passage of this section the term “mining claim” had been used in statutes, and had a well-defined meaning which had attached to it, not only by popular acceptance, but by the countenance and authority of judicial decisions. “ What, then, is a mining claim?” asks the court in Mt. Diablo etc. Co. v. Callison, 5 Saw. 439, and, answering its own interrogatory, declares: “A ‘mining claim’ is the name given to that portion of the public mineral lands which the miner, for mining purposes, takes up and holds in accordance with mining law.”

In Helm v. Chapman, 66 Cal. 291, work bad been done in the stopes and levels of a mine on a mining claim, and a lien was sought to be enforced for the value thereof. This court said: “Section 1183 does not, it is true, provide for liens upon mines, but upon ‘ mining claims.’ The lien, if it exists, extends to the whole claim.”

In Williams v. Santa Clara Min. Assn., 66 Cal. 193, the question came squarely before the court, and is thus treated: