Holmes

Action to recover possession of certain unpatented mining claims. Defendants had judgment. Plaintiffs in due time appealed, upon a statement, from the order denying a new trial.

The only questions presented upon this appeal relate to the action of the trial court in admitting certain testimony and as to the sufficiency of the evidence to support certain material findings. The complaint is in the usual form, alleging plaintiffs’ ownership, possession and right of possession on December 30, 1903, of three unpatented lode mining claims, designated as the “Bonanza,” “Blossom” and “Lucinda,” and of plaintiffs’ ouster therefrom by defendants. The answer is a denial of the ownership and right of possession in plaintiffs, and of the ouster.

Under these issues the court found that on the date named plaintiffs were not the owners or entitled to the possession of said mining claims, although they were in actual possession; that plaintiffs had not performed the annual assessment work thereon for three years, and that defendants had made valid locations of such claims after forfeiture by plaintiffs and had taken peaceable possession and continued work thereon up to the commencement of the…