New Mexico § 42-4-22 - Special verdict or findings; entry on mining land pending suit

§ 42-4-22. Special verdict or findings; entry on mining land pending suit

The court, in an action for the recovery of a mine or mining claim where a patent

is applied for, and the contest is pending in the land office of the United States,

may, upon motion of either party to the suit, require the jury to return a special

verdict, if tried by a jury; if not, then by a judge trying the same shall make a

special finding as to the particular interest each party owns in the mine or claim

in dispute, under and by virtue of the mining laws of the United States, which special

verdict or finding shall be entered into the judgment and upon the record of the court

trying the same: provided, however, there shall be no special verdict by the court

or jury, except where the evidence shows both parties to the suit to have a bona fide

interest in the mine or claim sued for: and, provided further, that no third person

who may have entered upon such mining claim or any part thereof, for the purpose of

locating or claiming the same before or during such litigation in the district court

growing out of any contest in any United States land office in this state, shall acquire

any interest either at law or in equity in the claim or any part thereof in dispute,

and shall be deemed and declared a trespasser or trespassers, unless he or they have

been, or may, during the pendency of such litigation in the district court resulting

from such contest in the United States land office, by a proper application to the

court, be made party or parties to such suit adverse to either of such litigants,

or both, or shall have taken such legal steps to assert his or their claim in a court

of competent jurisdiction within six months after the commencement of such contest

in the United States land office.