Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/546

638 FXSBBaL BEFOKïSr.. �tors were citizens, and the claim was in other particulars well located, and the proper conditions performed to hold the claim till the subsequent conveyance to plaintiff, November 20, 1878, a good title thereto, as against defendant, passed to the North Noonday Company, plaintiff, by that . conveyance. �The North Noonday Mining Company, plaintiff, is a cor- poration, created and existing under the laws of California, and is, therefore, to be deemed a citizen within the meaning of the statute, and as such is competent to purchase and hold a mining claim. Irwin, the Welches, and Clancy, as locators of the East Noonday North and grantees of Smith of the other claims and of his interest in the East Noonday North, held ail the interest in ail said claims acquired by the various proceedings in question, and so holding such interest on November 20, 1878, conveyed ail their interest in ail said claims to the North Noonday Mining Company, plaintiff, which thereby became vested with ail the interest that could be acquired by virtue of said transactions. If, therefore, the grantors of plaintiff had performed ail the acts necessary for a citizen to perform in order to locate and hold said several claims down to the date of said conveyance, and the said plaintiff took possession and control of said several claims upon receiving said conveyance, and thereafter kept the said claims properly marked on the ground and performed ail the conditions necessary to maintain their said claims, then said plaintiff acquired a good title to such of said claims as were so properly in form located and kept up as against said Orient Mining Company, defendant, provided said defendant ac- quired no rights in said claims, or any of them, prior to the acquisition of said interest by said plaintiff through said con- veyance, and such subsequent acts of said plaintiff to preserve their rights to said claims, even though one or more of said original locators should be found not to have been citizens, and, on that ground, incompetent to acquire any title under said act of congress. �The testimony tends to show various work done on the sev- eral claims by the claimants Welch, Smith and others, dur- ing 1877 and 1878, claimedby plaintiff to be sufficient to hold ��� �