requisite amount may be expended on one location for all.6 Where lodes are known to exist they should be applied and paid for as lodes; otherwise they will be excepted in the placer patent.7 Valuable deposits of copper can only be entered for patent as lode claims.8 Auriferous cement claims must be entered as placers.9 1 Copp's Min. Dec. 46. 2 Land Office Rep. 1872, p. 52. 4 Copp's Min. Dec. 35. 52 Landowner, 82; 5 Id. 162. 6 1 Landowner, 134; 2 Id. 114. 7 Copp's Min. Dec. 222; 2 Landowner, 82, 8 Copp's Min. Dec. 60. 9 Copp's Min. Dec. 78. § 107. Same-By whom application should be made. -Application for patent should be made by the owner of the possessory right. Where several persons own distinct portions of a claim, application may be made by either for the portion owned by him; but where the interests of several owners are undivided all should join in the application.2 But an application signed by one joint owner for himself and his co-claimants should be recognized as the application of all the owners in the absence of alleged or apparent fraud. The same presumption is indulged in favor of the validity of the acts of attorneys, performed in the legitimate prosecution of cases. The patent may be applied for by the original locator or a purchaser under him.4 But the applicant must be a citizen or one who has declared his intention to become such, and his qualifications in this respect must affirmatively appear.5 Where the applicant is a purchaser and a citizen, he should be able to trace his title through others possessing the same qualifications ;6 but no distinction is made between the rights of citizens, native or naturalized, and those who have declared their intentions to be come such. The negative of the citizenship of any one but the applicant, through whom the title is traced, must be affirmatively shown by any one contesting the application for patent.8 And it is not sufficient to show that the claim was located by an alien, but it must be shown that he did not declare his intentions before assigning the claim, as such declaration operates by relation to validate a location 9 or purchase by an alien.10 If the citizenship or declaration of intention be properly alleged and not denied, the law will be complied with.11 The commissioner of the general land office may prescribe the form of the affidavit of citizenship. And it has been decided that an affidavit of the date and place of birth must accompany the application, and if naturalized, or intention to become a citizen declared, the date, place and court from which the papers were issued should be named in the affidavit.12 A purchaser from an alien may acquire the possessory right by relocation, and thus be entitled to apply for and receive a patent.13 1 Infra. Proof required. 1 Landowner, 66; 6 Id. 122. 2 Copp's Min. Dec. 159, 223. 3 3 Landowner, 196. 4 Copp's Min. Dec. 157. 5 3 Landowner, 68, 69. 6 3 Landowner, 18, 69; Copp's Min. Dec. 43. 7 1 Landowner, 98. 8 1 Landowner, 178; 2 Id. 2. 9 1 Landowner, 98, 178. 10 3 Landowner, 69. 11 2 Landowner, 68. 12 3 Landowner, 68. 13 3 Landowner, 18. § 108. Same-Where application filed.-The application should be filed with the register and the receiver of the land office of the land district in which the claim lies; but filing with the register is equivalent to "filing with the register and receiver," according to the spirit of the ppl. 1 erof lies: with f the act of May 10, 1872.1 Applications for claims lying partly in one district and partly in another should be filed in the district where the principal workings are situated, and the plat and notices should be posted near such workings. A copy of the plat and notice should be posted in the land office of each district.2 Where two applications conflict, a compromise may be made by the claimants, and the surveyor-general will order a survey of the lines agreed upon.3 1 Copp's Min. Dec. 169. 2 2 Landowner, 130. 3 1 Landowner, 83. § 109. Same-Requisites to application for.-An application for patent to a mining claim should show compliance in all material particulars with the local and United States laws.1 Applications have been rejected because the location was not in accordance with law.2 Where the survey did not accurately define the boundaries of the claim.3 However, no survey or plat is required in placer applications upon surveyed lands;4 but the law does not authorize the sale of quartz lodes by legal subdivisions.5 An error in the government survey could not affect the application for placer patent on such lands, as the applicant for a patent should not suffer by the neglect of duty of any officer.6 Applications will nevertheless be rejected by the general land office on account of erroneous or insufficient description of the premises;7 because of want of notice of the application or that such notice was published without the knowledge and sanction of the register, or not in a newspaper designated as published nearest the claim; and because a previous application for the same premises has been made which was withdrawn on account of the pendency of a suit in court commenced by the adverse claimant.8 Those only who have possessory rights, acquired accord ing to law and custom, being entitled to obtain patents,9 it should in general appear that the record title of the applicant is perfect.10 Copies of deeds or full transcripts from the record of conveyances are not required to show a perfect chain of title. A complete abstract of the record title will suffice.11 And where a mining claim is not situated in a regularly constituted mining district, or where there are available means of having the title recorded, affidavits of the facts should be made and secondary evidence of possessory title will be received in lieu of the abstract.12 Ex parte affidavits may be received in support of the applicant's title, but the officer receiving such testimony should be satisfied of their truth and the credibility of the witnesses.13 In order to show title where the applicant is a corporation, it must file with the application a copy of its certificate of incorporation or charter.14 And where an applicant claims title to the mine through a deed signed by a party as executor of a decedent, he should file a certified copy of the letters testamentary, with a copy of the will. If the title depends upon the revocation of letters testamentary or of administration, a certificate of the clerk of the court having probate jurisdiction in the premises, and evidence showing authority to convey the interest of deceased must also be filed.15 Where a party has obtained title by proceeding against co-owners for failure to contribute their proportion of annual expenditure, he should file with his application a copy of the original notice of location, an abstract of all conveyances, a copy of the notice published to delinquent co-owners, embracing the names of all delinquents, with the affidavit of the publisher attached, that the notice was published for the period of ninety consecutive days, giving dates; the affidavit of claimant who made the required expenditure, corroborated by the separate affidavits of two disinterested witnesses, showing the work or improvements done or made upon the claim, and the time when done or made, together with the sworn statement of the claimant as to the failure of the delinquents to contribute during the ninety days' publication or the succeeding ninety days. These requirements would be modified in some particulars, of course, where the notice was personally served on the delinquent co-owners.16 The application for the patent must be sworn to by the applicant.17 13 Landowner, 162; 2 id. 2. 2 Copp's Min. Dec. 209. 3 Copp's Min. Dec. 340. 4 Copp's Min. Dec. 235. 9 Copp's Min. Dec. 19. 10 1 Landowner, 50; Copp's Min. Dec. 204, 340, 157. 11 1 Landowner, 178. 12 Copp's Min. Dec. 147. 13 Copp's Min. Dec. 16. 14 Copp's Min. Dec. 223. 15 3 Landowner, 18. 16 4 Landowner, 50. 17 1 Landowner, 66. See infra, § 115, "Affidavits." § 110. Same-Filing and posting diagram and notice. The filing and posting of the plat and notice are important requisites. The plat or diagram required to be posted on the claim should be an exact copy of one to be filed with the application, and must show the necessary expenditures to render the claim patentable. The notice and diagram should be posted on each separate tract or location, even when it is permissible to apply for several in one patent.3 And the proof of posting for the full time required by law should be by affidavit of one of the owners at date of entry, and should be specific |