22 S.D. 573 | S.D. | 1909
This cause comes before the court upon an appeal from the judgment of the circuit court of Lawrence county; the errors complained of being in the rejection of certain testi-" mony offered by the appellant on the trial in said circuit court.
It appears that the plaintiff and defendant were the owners in
Upon the trial plaintiff offered evidence to show that he performed work on certain adjacent claims, for which work he claimed he was entitled to receive credit on the claims in litigation for the reason that such work was beneficial to and naturally tended to the development of the claims in question. He offered to show that he posted notices in conspicuous places on the claims in litigation, notifying the world that development work for said claims was being done on the said adjacent claims, and also offered to prove that notices were posted conspicuously at the entrances of the workings on said adjacent claims notifying the world that said workings were being carried on in part for the benefit of the claims
I think it is well settled both by the decision of this couu found in Godfrey v. Faust, 20 S. D. 203, 105 N. W. 460, and under the holdings in 2 Lindley on Mining, §§ 630-631, together with the-long line of authorities cited by our court, and also by Findley, as well as the authorities cited by both parties on this appeal, that, where a person or persons hold several claims that are adjacent, work can be done on one claim and be credited on the other claims; also, that work can -be done outside of the limits of the claim, and have it credited on such claim where such work is beneficial to the claim, and that this is true even if there are several claims for which credit is asked for said outside work, provided said several claims are held in common; also, that, where there are several claims adjacent held by different persons and work beneficial to all of said claims can best be done on one of them, then, under a proper agreement between the owners of said claims, development work can all be done on one .claim, and be credited to the several claims, such work being a part of the general plan or scheme 'for the development of the several claims.
As we understand the case at bar, it is under this last proposition that the appellant contends that he should be. allowed to in
One illustration, it would seem, would show the weakness of plaintiff's contention. Suppose plaintiff owned a string of six claims adjacent one to the other such that work on any one of them could be credited in his behalf on all of them. Then suppose that said plaintiff had a half interest in six other claims, all of which were adjacent to the first-mentioned claims, the other half interest in said claims being held separately by six individuals, and all the claims, both those owned in common with the other persons and those owned by plaintiff, should be so situated that the work done by plaintiff on one of his claims qould be held to be beneficial to the six claims in which he held half interest. Would any one claim
In the discussion of this case, we have considered 'it as if the parties hereto were copartners in said claims; it having been so alleged and admitted in the pleadings. We do n.ot, however, want to be understood as holding that two persons who unite in establishing a mining claim are more 'than co-tenants or co-owners without some special agreement making them partners.
We, therefore, think that, under the facts as they appeared at the time the rulings Were made by the circuit court, the court was correct in its rulings excluding the evidence offered.
The judgment of the lower court is sustained.