Spalding

This suit was commenced in the court below by the present appellee, for himself and as assignee of 13 other laborers, to foreclose liens on the Soo quartz mining claim, one of a group of such claims owned by the Reliance Mining Company, a corporation, and situate in the Fairbanks mining precinct of the territory of Alaska. The complaint contains 27 causes of action, 13 of them being based upon the labor alleged to have been performed by the plaintiff and his assignors during a period commencing in July, 1913, and ending October 8, 1913, and 13 for like labor alleged to have been performed by the plaintiff and his assignors for a period commencing October 9, 1913, and ending November 10, 1913, and 1 for like labor for the period extending from August 3 to November 1, 1913.

Besides the appellant Spalding and the mining company, one Brumbaugh was made a defendant to the suit, each of whom filed a separate answer; that of the mining company being a general denial of the material allegations of each of the alleged causes of action, and also setting forth as an affirmative defense that, prior to the commencement of any work described in the complaint by the plaintiff or his assignors,…