Hamaker

It has been stipulated between respondent and appellants, through their respective counsel, that, whereas the records in the above-entitled cases are absolutely identical, except as to description of the property, the several appeals in said actions shall be consolidated and presented upon a single transcript. In each case the defendants have appealed from the judgment and from an order denying their motion for a new trial.

In view of the stipulation, we shall refer to the facts hereafter as if there were only one case. This is an action wherein the plaintiff seeks to quiet its title to certain described lands in the county of Orange. The defendants claim the lands as mining claims under placer mining locations. It may be assumed, as claimed by them, that in their answer they have alleged the facts necessary to sustain their claim, providing the lands in controversy were open to location under the mineral land laws of the United States and those of California in 1911. The plaintiff deraigns title by mesne conveyances from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California, to which company a patent had been issued by the United States of America. At the trial the plaintiff…