Harper

The defendants have appealed from the judgment and also from an order denying their motion for a new trial.

The plaintiff sued to recover possession of a mining claim known as the “Santa Ynez Gold Mine.” The principal controversy is in regard to the respective rights of the plaintiff and defendants to the southerly part of said Santa Ynez claim which overlaps the northerly part of a mining claim located by. the defendants known as the “Lookout Quartz Claim.” The defendants also claim practically the whole of the surface of the Santa Ynez Gold Mine by virtue of a certain alleged mining location known as the “Mountain View Quartz Claim.” These claims of defendants were asserted in a cross-complaint. It is also claimed that defendants had a right to the ground under a location in 1896 of a claim called the “Success” mine. The court found that the locations of the Mountain View Quartz Claim and the Success claim were invalid and that the plaintiff was entitled to the ground within the Santa Ynez Gold Mine which overlapped the Lookout Quartz Claim, and gave judgment accordingly. All the claims in question were located upon public lands of the United States.

We will first consider the…