Mendota Coal & Coke Co. v. Eastern Ry. & Lumber Co.

SAWTELLE, Circuit Judge.

On September 2, 1905, appellee, Eastern Railway & Lumber Company, leased to P. H. Smith and Alexander McLaren, for a term of ninety-nine years, 8,000 acres of land in Lewis county, Wash., for the purpose of exploration for and development and mining of coal and other minerals. These lands are on the Northern Pacific Railroad, about one hundred miles from both Portland and Seattle, about fifty miles from Tacoma, and about thirty-five miles from Olympia. In 1907 the lessees, Smith and McLaren, assigned the lease to appellant, Mendota Coal & Coke Company, a corporation…