Lowe

These are consolidated cases in which appellees sought and obtained judgment quieting their title to two placer *426 raining claims situate in the Territory of Alaska. 74 F. Supp. 917 , 11 Alaska 429 . The claims had been located by appellees’ predecessors in interest in 1908. In 1941 appellant made placer locations overlapping all or the major portion of the ground covered by the earlier locations, and subsequently she instituted in the United States Land Office proceedings to obtain patent. Appellees filed adverse claims in the proceeding and supported them with these suits. An advisory jury impaneled by the court returned a verdict finding that the 1908 locations were valid and that all required annual labor had been done by the claimants or their predecessors.

In the condition of the record, containing as it does no affirmative showing either way on the latter subject, the crucial inquiry is upon which party rested the burden of proof relative to the performance of annual labor. If by the law as it existed at the time of the trial the burden of proving performance was cast upon appellees the judgment below must be reversed, whereas if it was incumbent on appellant to prove…