Inimitable Copper Mining Co. v. Union Copper Mining Co.

— The plaintiff and defendant own each a mining claim in the Copper Canyon Mining District. The defendant’s claim was first located, and is nineteen hundred and fifty feet in length by three hundred feet in width. The defendant’s claim is along one side of this parallelogram. The defendants, in working their lead, followed the ledge, as is claimed, outside of their lateral boundaries, and into the boundaries of the plaintiff’s claim. The plaintiff contends that the claims are what miners call square locations, while the defendant contends the locations are of a lode or ledge, and upon this question the case depends.

The plaintiff put in evidence certain by-laws or mining rules of the district, of which the third article is as follows: “Article 3. A miner shall be entitled to one claim by location on a lead of one hundred and fifty (150) feet in length and three hundred (300) feet in width: any miner discovering a new lead or vein shall be entitled to an extra claim of the above extent.”

These rules were established on the third day of August, 1860, after the location of defendant’s claim, which was made *600 July 31, 1860. In locating the claim defendant’s grantors posted…