Kjelsberg

The defendant in error brought an action against the plaintiff in' error to recover damages for breach of an agreement to lease to 'the defendant in error a certain placer mining claim belonging to the plaintiff in error. The complaint alleged that the parties to the contract had been co- *449 partners in business at Nome, Alaska; that they dissolved their partnership, and in part consideration of the surrender by the defendant in error of his interest in the co-partnership business the plaintiif in error agreed to execute to him a lease of the mining claim for one year upon a royalty of 40 per cent.; that the plaintiif in error failed and refused to execute thé lease, and instead thereof executed a lease of the claim to another, so that the defendant in error was prevented from working the said claim; that the defendant in error could and would have extracted from the ground, over and above the royalty to be paid to the plaintiif in error and the necessary expenses of working the miné, gold dust of the value of $50,000. For that sum he demanded judgment. On the trial before a jury, verdict was returned for the defendant in error in the sum of $2,000, for which judgment was…