Mike Erceg v. Fairbanks School District, Sylvia Ringstad, D. H. Doxey, George Edmondson, and E. M. Hofford

Appellant brought suit against appel-lee Fairbanks School District and several individual defendants asking that he be restored to the possession and enjoyment of certain mining claims of which he was the owner, and that he have a money judgment of some $1,070. The School District moved the court for a dismissal upon the ground that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The motion was granted, and the action ordered dismissed. Appellant did not seek leave to amend his pleading in any particular. This appeal is from the judgment of dismissal.

The complaint is poorly drafted and difficult to follow or understand. In summary it appears to boil down to the following: Appellant is the owner of certain “undeveloped” patented placer mining claims located within the School District. During each of the years 1949-1953 the District assessed these claims at $100 per acre and levied a one per cent tax thereon. This valuation, it is alleged, was fictitious and in excess of the maximum valuation of $500 per twenty-acre claim or fraction thereof permitted by law. Certain of the claims were sold by the District at public sale to one or another of the…