Fernandez v. Burleson

Britt, C. Plaintiffs, eight in number, united in this action under the permissive clause of section 1195 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to enforce liens claimed by them, respectively, for balances due from defendants •on account of labor performed by plaintiffs, severally, at the request of defendants, on a mining claim in Siskiyou county. Defendants constitute a mining partnership under the name of Burleson & Parsley; they owned a mining claim called the “ Bare Bar ” claim, and employed plaintiffs to work thereon; their answer admitted that the balances alleged are due to the plaintiffs, respectively, but denied that the work was done on the premises described in plaintiffs’ several claims of lien. There was judgment for the plaintiffs—seven of them—directing the sale of said “ Bare Bar ” property, and the application of the proceeds to the payment of the demands of the successful plaintiffs, with costs and attorneys’ fees; the correctness of the judgment depends upon the answer to the question whether the property thus directed to be sold is described at all in the claims of lien filed in the office of the county recorder under section 1187 of the Code of Civil Procedure. In this particular the notices were all in the same form; that of Fernandez, taken as an example, [166]stated: “I . . . . give notice of my intention to hold and claim a lien .... upon that certain mining claim situated in the Virginia Bar mining district, county of Siskiyou, state of California, particularly described as follows [giving a specific description by monuments, metes, and bounds], containing twelve acres, more or less, .... with all improvements, including wheels, pumps, and all mining facilities and appurtenances situated thereon. The said lien being claimed and held for .... work done .... upon said premises .... from the 27th day of June, 1892, to the 8th day of September, 1892, .... at the special instance and request of Burleson & Parsley, the owners and reputed owners thereof.”

It is conceded that the description by monuments, metes, and bounds, thus stated, does not apply in any part to the “Bare Bar” property, where plaintiffs did their work, but does apply with entire accuracy to art adjoining mining claim known as the “ Otto Bar,” in which defendants had, with other persons, some interest, but which was not worked at all during the year 1892. It was in evidence, however, that there were no wheels, pumps, or mining facilities on the “ Otto Bar ” mining claim, while there were such on the “ Bare Bar ” claim; that mines in the vicinity were “ generally known by the names of the parties running them that the “ Bare Bar ” claim was commonly called the Burleson & Parsley claim; that mining claims were somewhat numerous in that neighborhood, but defendants worked no other.