Brown

Plaintiffs brought this action to quiet title to a quartz mining claim known as the “Never Sweat Quartz Mine” in Calaveras County. Defendants answered and also filed a cross-complaint to quiet title to certain lands patented to the defendant Buddy by the United States government as a stock-raising homestead.

The mining claim was located on the public domain in 1896 by plaintiffs’ predecessors in interest. All requirements of the law in respect to the location of quartz mining claims were fulfilled and the annual assessment work has all been performed. No patent has 'been issued to plaintiffs. In 1922, the defendant Buddy made application for a stock-raising homestead, and thereafter, on the twelfth day of January, 1927, a patent to said homestead was issued to him by the United States. Plaintiffs had no actual knowledge of said defendant’s application and no contest was made on the issuance of the patent. The mining claim is of the usual dimensions, 600x1500 feet. The patent to Buddy describes a tract of land 481.97 acres in extent and overlaps the mining claim on 1.96 acres of the southerly end thereof. In the course of the development of the claim several cuts have been made…