Nygard

The appellees, as plaintiffs, brought suit against the appellants, praying that they be decreed the owners of an undivided one-third interest in certain mining claims situated in Alaska; that they be decreed entitled to an undivided one-third interest in the sum of $30,000 agreed to be paid by defendant Evis Corporation to defendants Nygard and Nuckolls, in payment of the purchase price of said mining claims.

At the trial the following facts were brought out:

In 1904 Gunder Nygard located a mining claim which he named the “Goo Goo”, near Sea Level, Thorne Arm, in the Ketchikan Mining and Recording District, First Division/Territory of Alaska. In 1907 Richard Nuckolls located a claim known as the “Goo Goo No. 1”, or “Goo Goo Extension”, or “United States”. Gunder Nygard and Richard Nuckolls had been friends since 1900 1 and these claims were adjacent. Before locating the No. 1 or Extension, Nuckolls acquired an interest in the Goo Goo claim. Nuckolls had agreed with Nygard in 1904 to purchase the *283 Goo Goo claim for $12,000, but did not pay all of the purchase price. After Nuckolls acquired the Extension another agreement was entered into whereby they put the two claims…