OCR Text |
Show IMPORTANT DECISION. Secretary of Interior Renders Decision of Interest to Miners. Following is an extract from an important im-portant decision rendered by tho scc-I scc-I rotary of tho interior in tho Anna Mario lodo claim case of Park City. The do-cision do-cision was received Thursday at the local land ollico: Where several contiguous mining clnlms arc" held In common and expenditures expen-ditures are made upon an Improvement which Is intended to aid In the development develop-ment of tho claims so hold, and which Is of such a character as to redound to the benefit of all, such a general Improvement Im-provement is properly called a common Improvement. In legal contemplation these terms Import a single distinct entity, en-tity, not subject to physical subdivision or apportionment. In Its application to the claims Intended to bo benefited by It. Tho entlro body of claims held in common, com-mon, tho group as it Is ordinarily denominated, denom-inated, not the Individual claims separately sep-arately considered. Is the bcneficlnry on the one hand, while on the other, the common Improvement in Its entirety Is the means or agency effecting the common com-mon development or the community benefit. Such benefit accrues and attaches at-taches to, and becomes available for, the claims as a body, not Individually, by the very reason of the construction of tho common Improvement and as soon as the construction takes place. The physical 'act of sinking a shaft, or driving a tunnel. tun-nel. whlCh is a common Improvement, makes this so; not the certificate of the surveyor-general to that effect. Where two or more persons own properly prop-erly In coifimon each owner has only an undivided Interest therein, represented by 110 physical or tangible part of the property itself, but extending and attaching at-taching to the whole thereof. By a simple sim-ple computation the value of such Interest, In-terest, based upon the. value of the entire property. Is easily ascertained. Likewise each claim of a group dovclopod by a common Improvement has an undivided, un-divided, but nevertheless beneficial and ascertainable, interest In tho common development work. By a calculation, based npon the number of claims In tho group and upon the value of tho common improvement, It Is readily ascertained whether the equivalent of the required expenditure In labor and Improvements for the benefit of each claim is represented repre-sented In the common Improvement, aflI whether more or loss, and also what credit is available to such claims as are embraced In any particular patent proceedings. pro-ceedings. In the case at bar 23 claims arc embraced em-braced In the group Involved, and the common Improvement !s-Jvnlued at 51600. as 1s shown by the record. Fourteen of these claims have been accredited-with accredited-with the sum of $200 each, derived from the value of the common shaft, six claims with S300 each, from the snme source, and three claims are accredited with nothing from this source. Such a method of arbitrarily adjusting the credit to be, derived from a common shaft, merely as the exlgeclcs of tho case seem to require. Is destructive of the essential Idea inherent In the term, a common Improvement, To undertake to set apart or apportion a physical segment seg-ment or section, or an arbitrarily fractional frac-tional part, of a common improvement and accredit the value thereof to a particular par-ticular claim Is in violation of the theory of n common benefit accruing from a common Improvement. The scheme here Invoked for adjusting the monetary worth of the benefit derived from a common improvement is, on Its face, unreasonable and lends to a result re-sult but little short of absurd. The deportment de-portment Is of the opinion that it Is unwarranted un-warranted and unauthorized by. and contrary to, the law. Equally, therefore, are arbitrary apportionments ap-portionments heretofore made of phvsl-cal phvsl-cal segments of the Silver King shaft to those claims already carried to entrv. was In iolatlon of this principle. An to all the company's claims which had been located prior to the commencement of the development project, which arc contiguous upon the ground and which have been the beneficiaries of that project, pro-ject, the whole improvement or project is common, and each claim hns an equal and undivided Interest -therein. If the Anna Marie Is one of those claims, the full facts must be shown, whereby It mnv be made celarly to appear what claims of the group are embraced within the common development enterprise and wlint claims are patlcularly benefited or developed by the drift from the. 900-foot level. In order that the due and full share of tho cost or value of the Improvements to which each Is entitled mav be determined. deter-mined. Before any further assignment of credits can be made out of the cost of the avallahle improvements, or anv I of them, the number of contiguous claims having a common ownership, to be developed de-veloped through or by menus thereof, must be shown, ronformablv to tho ruling rul-ing In tho Carrotto case. j The company will be accorded a reasonable rea-sonable time, to be fixed by vour office, within which to make nn additional showing n ong tho lines herein indicated. If a showing in all rospocts satisfactory be submitted within the tlmo so to be fixed. (iinil t apnea rs to the satisfaction of your office, from the record as then made up. that the Improvements relied upon to meet the statutory requirement relative to expenditure arc sufficient in .value, and of such character as to redound re-dound to the benefit of tho claim in question, the entry may stand, in the absence of other objection, otherwise. It whl b0 canceled. As herein modified tho decision of your office I affirmed respcc?fully.arC ,,erew,t, returned. Very IS. i-.HITCHCOCK, Secretary. |