California Dolomite Co. v. Standridge

BARNARD, P. J. This is an appeal from a judgment quieting title to certain mining claims.

Several placer mining claims were located in 1949 by the Baxter group of defendants. After certain developments they leased these claims to the California Dolomite Company, which entered into possession and commenced active mining and milling on the premises. A year and a half later, Stand-ridge and Mingus made claim to the royalties, basing their claim of title on locations claimed to have been made by Mingus and his predecessors in 1929 and 1931. Standridge claimed under Mingus and apparently did not appear in the the picture until 1950. The Dolomite Company brought this action to compel the conflicting claimants to interplead and litigate their claims. By appropriate pleadings the different claimants sought to quiet their title to these claims, and the action was tried as if they were plaintiffs and defendants, respectively.

At the trial it appeared, without dispute, that Mingus and others had in 1929 and 1931 recorded six location notices, each describing a different quarter section of land by refer[637]ence to the government survey, and that the claims here in question were included within some of the quarter sections thus described. The next instrument filed of record was a notice to hold, filed in 1936. Nothing was filed in 1937, and a notice to hold was filed in 1938. Proof of labor was filed for 1939, but nothing was filed for 1940. Proof of labor was filed for 1941, and notices to hold were filed for the years 1942 to 1949, inclusive. Proof of labor was filed for 1950 and 1951, both of these being after the Dolomite Company was actively mining the property under its leases. A large amount of evidence was received as to what had been done by various parties from 1929 on, with reference to the posting of the original location notices on the property, the building of monuments, the doing of work, visits to the property and the time spent thereon by various persons, what was done and seen at different times in various places, and other matters going to the questions as to whether legal requirements had been fulfilled, the kind and nature of the possession taken, and the use made of the property throughout the years between 1929 and 1949. The court found in favor of the Baxter group, finding that they had located the claims in good faith; that at all material times they were and are the owners of these mining claims; that the claims of Standridge and Mingus, and each of them, are without any right whatever; that neither of them has any right, title or interest in the property; that it is not true that they acquired any interest by reason of the location notices recorded in 1929 and 1931; that it is not true that “all acts necessary and required to maintain said claims have been performed upon said claims, and that the same are valid and subsisting at the present date”; and that it is not true that these claims are now owned and held by these plaintiffs or that they are entitled to the possession thereof. Judgment was entered accordingly, quieting title to these claims in the Baxter group, and Stand-ridge and Mingus have appealed from that judgment.