Caldwell v. Jackson County

Plaintiff brought this action, designated in the complaint as an action for inverse condemnation, to recover damages for the removal of a quantity of broken limestone rock from an unpatented mining claim on federal forest land. The trial court entered a judgment for the defendant county, and plaintiff appeals.

The claim had been located by plaintiff and her husband, since deceased, in 1946, and the rock was a product of their operations in performing the required claim assessment work. The county hauled away substantially all of the rock pile for use in a road project, allegedly after…