Show an important supreme court decision written for the mining review by J B GRAHAM A decision of more than usual interest involving an important question of law was made by the united states supreme court at its last session in affirmation of a judgment of the supreme court of utah sustaining the verdict of a trial court in the case of giovanni lavagnino vs E H A mckernan and the saint joe mining company of salt lake city involving interests in the camp of bingham utah lavagnino as the owner of an alleged lode location filed an adverse claim to portions of the nos 1 and 2 mining claims of the st joe group of bingham for which patent was applied for by defendants fend ants now deceased and mckernan located the claims january 1 1889 and application for patent was made by def defendants end in the month of august 1898 lavagnino set f orth forth in his complaint that at the time of the locations there was an existing valid location of the ground in dispute in this action known as the levi P lode mining claim that assessment work was regularly performed on the levi P and duly recorded up to and including the year 1896 that no work was done in 1897 that thus the location was forfeited and reverted back to its condition as unoccupied mineral land and that on january 1 1898 it was relocated as the yes you do lode claim which lavagnino it is presumed acquired of the for a consideration jt it was claimed in the complaint that the nos I 1 and 2 lodes were invalid lo 10 i cat ions they having been made on ground already occupied by the levi P record of which having been made a few hours before the contested claims were recorded the court made findings in fact based on section 2326 of the revised statutes dismissing the action against defendants section 2326 was held to plainly recognize that orie one who has established his right to a mining location by performing the acts required by law including annual labor is entitled to land lawfully embraced in his location notice provided adverse rights are not set up by a senior locator according to the manner specified in said section thus clearly providing that a senior locator may abandon his paramount rights in favor of a junior locator by failure to adverse the batters lat 7 tt a plant at the st joe deep tunnel bingham utah application for patent this section in connection with sections 2319 and ana 2324 is beld to prevent mineral lands ands I 1 which have been the subject of conflicting locations from reverting back as unoccupied mineral land by the mere forfeiture of one of such locators again and finally the trial court was sustained in its judgment that the alleged yes you do relocation of plaintiff was invalid and worthless because of two other and widely daffe different rent reasons first its location notice was dated over seven years after the location of the claims and therefore barred of legal record by the statute of limitations and second it was shown that the yes you do location was made by a deputy united states mineral surveyor for the district in violation of law and that the said deputy also made the survey and plat filed in the land office against the ap p for patent lavagnino alleged no other claim to the 6 ground in controversy than the illegal loca tion made by the deputy mineral surveyor several other contests with the saint joe instituted by him are practically decided by the result of this case his locations were made since 1901 over claims located by the th saint joe people thirteen years ago and the company is prepared to show that at the time they were jumped by mr lavagnino they had a force of eight men at work upon them also that during the years before pat ent was applied f for or there was no delinquency in the matter of annual labor or of any nature hampered by litigation some of which it is claimed took on a semblance of black mail the mines of the company have been virtually shut down for upwards of two years during which the various contestants have been met in regular order and with a single exception fought to a standstill the exception was a suit for ground now a part of the greek group adjoining which the company relinquished at once on being furnished with proof that a claim to the ground it had acquired by purchase was irregular the many struggles over saint joe holdings i would indicate that they are much c coveted ov eted W within athin forty eight hours after the decision was rendered as above stated the saint joe management purchased six months supplies and had them on the wa way y to the mines in bingham and active operations having been resumed last month with machine drills the main tunnel is now being driven ahead at the rate of three feet a day ay also drifting on ore bodies showing in upper i workings is progressing while an upraise from the tunnel for air and preparatory to ore production is being made it is claimed that the saint joe prop property e arty is now in shape to output over fifty tons of fair milling ore daily largely from d development work and that a concentrator on the fine mill site in connection as a matter of necessity will soon have to be installed A good flow of water for milling purposes can be developed when needed a large flow having been tapped in the upper workings of the property now flooded the I 1 long ong tunnel designed to ultimately cut the ore bodies of main bingham at great depth was in 2150 feet on the first of the month and is running in mineralized vein matter it may prove of special importance to the saint joe company that the survey tor for the the boston bos 0 railroad to convey ore from consolidated mines to the great red reductio fiction works to be constructed at bostonia where it is stated within two years upwards up wards of tons of boston con ore will be treat tre ed daily passes within a few feet ot of the saint joes main tunnel and thus the nc new road may afford unexpected facilities for saint joe rn milling illing products A suit was begun back in 1901 by some of the stockholders of the company to put the saint joe property in the hands of a receiver the apparent intent being to depose the president and manager dr R A hasbrouck this action must have met the common fate as it is noticeable that the genial doctor is still in the saddle discharging his duties with renewed activity after the long shutdown shut down and apparently with more confidence than ever that the saint joe is destined to develop into one of the biggest mines in great copper camp |