Pacific Coal & Transportation Co. v. Pioneer Mining Co.

This suit was instituted by the Pioneer Mining Company, the appellee here, to quiet the title to a certain mining claim, known as Bench claim No. 1, on Moonlight creek, in the Cape Nome recording district, district of Alaska.

The defendants deny the right of plaintiff to have its alleged title to such mining claim quieted, and aver that the defendant the Pacific Coal & Transportation Company is the owner and entitled to the possession of a mining claim known as Bench No. 1, at the base of Anvil Mountain, also called the “Moonlight” or “Grant” claim, situated in the same recording district, and seek to have its title to said claim quieted as against the claim of plaintiff. Defendant McCumber is an alleged lessee of the Transportation Company, and holds whatever right or interest he has in the claim subserviently to that company. Other specific defenses are pleaded. The defendants’ claim, as described by them, overlaps or conflicts in certain considerable area with the plaintiff’s alleged claim, and the controversy here is concerning the conflict area.

After the pleadings were settled, the defendants each moved the court for an order assigning the cause for trial on the jury…