Merced Oil Mining Co. v. Patterson

In May, 1899, C. C. Spinks and his seven associates entered upon and located under the Placer Mining Laws one hundred and sixty acres of vacant, unoccupied mineral lands of the United States. The mineral for which the lands were thought to be valuable was oil. The boundaries of the consolidated claim were marked and the locators proceeded with the work of development to make an oil discovery. On the twenty-seventh day of January, 1900, and before any discovery of oil had been made by the associates, they conveyed a certain forty acres of their one hundred and sixty acres to the Merced Oil…