Crofoot v. Hill

OPINION

By the Court,

Badt, C. J.:

This appeal involves the conflict of a lode claim with a placer, or, more closely defined, the question of the existence of a known lode within the boundaries of the placer at the time of the placer patent application. The further question involved is whether mere proof of the filing of a certificate of lode location within the boundaries of a prior placer location, by parties foreign to the litigation, so segregated the lode from the public domain that the United States was precluded from disposing of the ground by patent to the owner of the placer.

Appellants’…