The two supreme court cases involving the Diamondville, WY mining can be found at the Cornell University Law School web site. They do not say where they originated, but came out of the US District Court for the District of Wyoming (sits in either Cheyenne or Casper) or the US District Court for the District of Columbia. They may have gone through the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals (The 10th Circuit was carved out of the old 8th Circuit in 1929, after the cases were decided.) The District or Circuit Court files may have more information about Daniel Harrison. We may also want to look at the Bankruptcy Court filings. The company must have spent a lot on legal fees, and may have been wiped out by the advers ruling. Alternatively, the company may have been sold to the Anaconda Company, and it may have bankrolled the lawsuits. So here they are, the 1914 and 1921 cases: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Supreme Court DIAMOND COAL & COKE CO. v. U S, 233 U.S. 236 (1914) 233 U.S. 236 DIAMOND COAL & COKE COMPANY, Appt., v. UNITED STATES. No. 192. Argued January 28 and 29, 1914. Decided April 6, 1914. [233 U.S. 236, 237] Messrs. C. F. Kelley, L. O. Evans, and B. M. Ausherman for appellant. Solicitor General Davis and Mr. Karl W. Kirchwey for appellee. Mr. Justice Van Devanter delivered the opinion of the court: This was a suit by the United States, against an incorporated company engaged in coal mining, to regain the title to about 2,840 acres of land in Uinta county, Wyoming, theretofore patented to Thomas Sneddon and Daniel F. Harrison, and by them conveyed to the coal company. The patents, thirty-four in number, were issued under the homestead law upon what are called soldiers' additional entries. The applications for the entries were made at various dates beginning with May 1, 1899, and each application was accompanied by an affidavit, by either Sneddon or Harrison, stating that he was [233 U.S. 236, 238] well acquainted with the land, had passed over it frequently, and could testify understandingly about it; that there was not, to his knowledge, any deposit of coal or other valuable mineral within its limits; that it was essentially nonmineral, and that the application was made with the object of securing it for agricultural purposes, and not of fraudulently obtaining title to mineral land. Mineral lands, including coal lands, are not subject to acquisition under the homestead law (Rev. Stat. 2302, 2318, 2319, 2347-2351, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 1410, 1423, 1424, 1440, 1441), and these affidavits were made and submitted as proof that the character of the lands applied for was such that they properly could be acquired under that law. The land officers accepted the affidavits and the statements, therein as true, and allowed the entries and issued the patents. The bill charged that the affidavits were false and that the entries and patents were procured in the execution of a fraudulent scheme to acquire known coal lands under soldiers' additional homestead entries; and the decisive issues in the case were, first, whether the lands were known to be valuable for coal when the applications for the entries were made, and, second, if they were, whether the coal company was a bona fide purchaser from the patentees. At the hearing the circuit court answered the first of these questions in the negative and gave a decree for the coal company; but upon an appeal to the circuit court of appeals that court answered the first question in the affirmative and the second in the negative, and reversed the action of the circuit court, with a direction that a decree for the government be entered. 112 C. C. A. 272, 191 Fed. 786. The present appeal was then taken by the coal company. As the arguments of counsel have taken a wide range and in some respects have departed from the settled rules of decision applicable in cases like this, it will be appropriate to restate those rules before turning to the evidence. They are: [233 U.S. 236, 239] 1. Questions of fact arising in the administration of the public-land laws, such as whether lands sought to be entered are mineral or nonmineral, are committed to the land officers for determination; and as their decision must rest largely or entirely upon proofs outside the official records, it is possible in ex parte proceedings, as was the case here, for applicants, by submitting false proofs, to impose upon those officers and secure entries and patents under one law, when if truthful proofs were submitted the lands could not be acquired under that law, but only under another imposing different restrictions upon their disposal. A patent secured by such fraudulent practices, although not void or open to collateral attack, is nevertheless voidable, and may be annulled in a suit by the government against the patentee or a purchaser with notice of the fraud. St. Louis Smelting & Ref. Co. v. Kemp, 104 U.S. 636, 640 , 26 S. L. ed. 875, 876, 11 Mor. Min. Rep. 673; United States v. Minor, 114 U.S. 233, 240 , 29 S. L. ed. 110, 112, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 836; Colorado Coal & I. Co. v. United States, 123 U.S. 307, 313 , 31 S. L. ed. 182, 185, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 131; Burfenning v. Chicago, St. P. M. & O. R. Co. 163 U.S. 321, 323 , 41 S. L. ed. 175, 176, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1018 2. The respect due to a patent, the presumption that all the preceding steps required by law were duly observed, and the obvious necessity for stability in titles resting upon these official instruments, require that in suits to annul them the government shall bear the burden of proof and shall sustain it by that class of evidence which commands respect, and that amount of it which produces conviction. Maxwell Land- Grant Case, 121 U.S. 325 , 379-381; 30 L. ed. 949, 958, 959, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1015; United States v. Iron Silver Min. Co. 128 U.S. 673, 676 , 32 S. L. ed. 571, 572, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 195; United States v. Stinson, 197 U.S. 200, 204 , 205 S., 49 L. ed. 724, 725, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 426; United States v. Clark, 200 U.S. 601, 608 , 50 S. L. ed. 613, 616, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 340. 3. To justify the annulment of a homestead patent as wrongfully covered mineral land, it must appear that at the time of the proceedings which resulted in the patent the land was known to be valuable for minerals; that is to say, it must appear that the known conditions at the time [233 U.S. 236, 240] of those proceedings were plainly such as to engender the belief that the land contained mineral deposits of such quality and in such quantity as would render their extraction profitable and justify expenditures to that end. If at that time the land was not thus known to be valuable for mineral, subsequent discoveries will not affect the patent. The inquiry must be directed to the situation at that time, as were the applicant's proofs and the finding of the land officers. If the proofs were not false then, they cannot be condemned, nor the good faith of the applicant impugned, by reason of any subsequent change in the conditions. 'We say 'land known at the time to be valuable for its minerals,' as there are vast tracts of public land in which minerals of different kinds are found, but not in such quantity as to justify expenditures in the effort to extract them. It is not to such lands that the term 'mineral' in the sense of the statute is applicable. . . . We also say lands known at the time of their sale to be thus valuable, in order to avoid any possible conclusion against the validity of titles which may be issued for other kinds of land, in which, years afterwards, rich deposits of mineral may be discovered. It is quite possible that lands settled upon as suitable only for agricultural purposes, entered by the settler and patented by the government under the pre-emption laws, may be found, years after the patent has been issued, to contain valuable minerals. Indeed, this has often happened. We therefore use the term known to be valuable at the time of sale, to prevent any doubt being cast upon titles to lands afterwards found to be different in their mineral character from what was supposed when the entry of them was made and the patent issued.' Deffeback v. Hawke, 115 U.S. 392, 404 , 29 S. L. ed. 423, 426, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 95; Colorado Coal & I. Co. v. United States, 123 U.S. 307, 328 , 31 S. L. ed. 182, 190, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 131; United States v. Iron Silver Min. Co. 128 U.S. 673, 683 , 32 S. L. ed. 571, 575, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 195; Davis v. Wiebbold, 139 U.S. 507, 519 , 35 S. L. ed. 238, 242, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 628; Dower v. Richards, 151 U.S. 658, 663 , 38 S. L. ed. 305, 307, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 452, 17 Mor. Min. Rep. 704; [233 U.S. 236, 241] Shaw v. Kellogg, 170 U.S. 312, 332 , 42 S. L. ed. 1050, 1057, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 632; United States v. Plowman, 216 U.S. 372, 374 , 54 S. L. ed. 523, 524, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 299. As a further preliminary to considering the evidence, it should be observed that these lands, if purchased under the coalland law, would have cost $20 an acre, and also that the coal company could not have purchased directly, or indirectly through others, more than 320 acres, unless it expended $5,000 in opening and improving a mine, in which event the maximum would have been 640 acres. Rev. Stat. 2348, 2350, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 1440, 1441; United States v. Trinidad Coal & Coping Co. 137 U.S. 160 , 34 L. ed. 640, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 57; United States v. Keitel, 211 U.S. 370 , 53 L. ed. 230, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 123. As before said, the entries here in question embraced about 2,840 acres. Coming to the evidence, we find it voluminous, unreasonably so. Part of it sheds no light upon the issues, and was taken in disregard of the last of the rules just stated. That which properly may be considered very clearly establishes the following facts: The proceedings in the land office began in May, 1899. Most of the applications were filed during that year and passed to patent in 1901. The others were presented and acted upon in succeeding years. The patents were all secured by means of affidavits and proofs, as before indicated, declaring that the lands were essentially nonmineral, were not known to contain any deposit of coal, and were sought for agricultural purposes, and not as mineral land. For many years the district in which the lands were situate had been known to contain coal. They were surveyed in 1874, and the surveyor reported one of the sections as coal land, the others being contiguous to lands similarly reported. This was shown in the field notes and upon the official plats. The lands were in a valley, 3 or 4 miles in width, bounded on the east and west by foothills. A thick bed of coal was disclosed in the eastern face of the western hills, but its quality was not such as to make it of commercial value. Along [233 U.S. 236, 242] the western base of the eastern hills was the outcrop of another coal bed. This outcrop had been weathered down and in some places covered by the wash from above, but it could be traced upon the surface for several miles. It had been opened up at different places, and the openings disclosed a coal bed, from 6 to 14 feet in thickness, dipping to the west at an angle of from 15 to 25 degrees from the horizontal, as did the cretaceous rocks with which it was interstratified. This coal was of superior quality and recognized commercial value, and the rocks containing it were the coal- bearing strata of that region. The lands in controversy were west of the outcrop, in the direction of the dip. Some were near the outcrop, and the east line of the farthest section was about a mile and a half away. There was nothing upon their surface showing the presence of coal beneath, nor anything indicating that the bed outcropping on the east and dipping to the west did not pass through them. Unless valuable for coal, they were not worth to exceed a dollar and a quarter an acre. They were arid sagebrush lands, about 7,000 feet above sea level, and afforded very limited pasturage. Without irrigation they were not susceptible of cultivation, and the cost of securing water for that purpose was prohibitive. Attracted by this outcrop, the coal company opened a mine thereon, in the vicinity of these lands, in 1894. In the beginning the output of the mine was small, but it reached 183,750 tons for 1897, 259,608 tons for 1898, and 441,277 tons for 1899. An attempt was made by the coal company to acquire a part of the lands in controversy in 1898, by inducing some of its employees and others to make ordinary homestead entries of them under an agreement whereby the company was to bear the expense, compensate the entrymen for the exercise of their homestead rights, and receive the title when perfected. The arrangement was fraudulent [233 U.S. 236, 243] and in direct violation of the homestead law, independently of the character of the lands. 26 Stat. at L. 1097, chap. 561, 5, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1388. Sneddon was in charge of the attempt. He was acquainted with the lands and all their surroundings and was well informed upon the subject of coal mining. With the aid of a surveyor he identified the subdivisions to be entered, and afterwards selected the men who were to make the entries and directed all that was done, indicating, in that connection, that the lands were coal lands and were to be taken for that reason, and also to prevent another coal concern from getting them. The entries were made in 160-acre tracts, and to give them apparent support cheap cabins were put upon the lands, at the company's expense, but the law was not even colorably complied with in other respects. The next year this plan was abandoned and that of using soldiers' additional rights was adopted. These rights were assignable, and in their exercise no residence, improvement, or cultivation was required. See Rev. Stat. 2306, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1415; Webster v. Luther, 163 U.S. 331 , 41 L. ed. 179, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 963. At the company's request the prior entries were relinquished and the entrymen were severaly paid $500 for what they had done, the payment to one being $600. When the relinquishments were filed, Sneddon and Harrison immediately applied to enter the lands with soldiers' additional rights. A few of the relinquished subdivisions were not re- entered, and several tracts not covered by the prior entries were included in the new ones, but all of the latter were made with soldiers' additional rights purchased and supplied by the company, and were made for its benefit. The price paid by the company for these additional rights was from $6 to $13 an acre. After the entries were obtained the lands were conveyed to the company, and Sneddon was paid $1,000 for this service, although otherwise regularly employed by the company at the time. In 1898, shortly before the dummy entries were made, [233 U.S. 236, 244] Sneddon had filed in the land office a sworn declaration of his intention to purchase, under the coal-land law (Rev. Stat. 2347-2349, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 1440, 1441), one of the tracts in controversy, which he then described as containing 'a valuable vein of coal.' The tract was about a quarter of a mile from the outcrop. At the time of making the soldiers' additional entries he relinquished the coal filing and included the tract in two of them. In 1899, about the time of the additional entries, James Lees purchased from the government, under the coal-land law, and sold to the company for $3,400, a quarter section upon which earlier exploration had disclosed good coal, 8 feet in thickness. This sale was in execution of a prior arrangement, and the price paid to Lees was $200 in excess of that paid to the government. The tract was within a half mile in each of three directions from lands here in controversy. As indicative of the weight and importance which men having a practical knowledge of coal mining attached to the outcrop at the time, the government proved by an experienced mine foreman, who had been in charge of large mines, known as the Cumberland, adjacent to a portion of the lands in controversy, that those mines were opened in 1900 by reason of what was found on the outcrop; that there was no precedent drilling of the adjacent lands; and that in advising the opening of the mines he was guided by what an examination of the outcrop in 1889 disclosed. True, he said that he could not take 'a solemn oath' or 'be positive' that unexplored lands in the vicinity of the outcrop and in the direction of the dip contained valuable coal, but his testimony was plainly to the effect that the outcrop, the direction and inclination of the dip, and other conditions in 1899 and 1900, afforded reasonable ground for believing that a considerable territory lying west of the outcrop could be mined profitably. [233 U.S. 236, 245] There was much expert testimony by geologists concerning the outcrop and other known geological data bearing upon the character of these lands. In the main the witnesses were agreed respecting the existence of these physical indicia, but differed as to the conclusions to be drawn from them; the expert for the government maintaining that they afforded convincing reasons for concluding that the lands were coal lands, and the experts for the coal company controverting that view. But the divergence was not so pronounced as it would seem, for it was partly due to a difference as to what, in legal contemplation, are coal lands. The expert for the government proceeded upon the theory that when the known surroundings are such that practical coal men would invest in particular lands for coal mining, or advise others to do so, those lands are to be deemed coal lands, even though coal has not as yet actually been disclosed within their limits. And having in mind the outcropping coal bed, the direction and inclination of its dip, the character of the rocks with which it was interstratified, the quality and thickness of the coal at the outcrop, the proximity of the lands to the outcrop, and the topographical and structural features of the vicinity, he gave it as his opinion that the coal bed extended into and through the lands in question, and that practical coal men would regard the lands as valuable for coal, and invest in them as such. He accordingly pronounced them coal lands within his acceptation of that term. This conclusion had substantial support, not only in the facts already recited, but also in the fact that the company's maps, made three years before the suit was begun, showed that it was intended to project its mining operations westward from the outcrop a mile and a half, and had designated the intervening lands, which included some of those in controversy, as coal lands, and in the further fact that the company had returned lands extending west- [233 U.S. 236, 246] ward a similar distance, likewise including some now in controversy, as exempt from direct taxation by reason of a local statute substituting an output tax upon coal mines. Laws Wyo. 1903, chap. 81, p. 101. The return for the year in which the maps were made claimed an exemption of substantially six sections, in two tiers of three sections each, although the work of developing the mine (No. 4), as shown by the maps, was still within the east half of the middle section in the eastern tier. The experts for the coal company proceeded largely, but not entirely, upon the theory that lands cannot be regarded as coal lands unless coal in quantity and of quality to render its extraction profitable is actually disclosed within their boundaries. One testified that even if a slope were driven from the outcrop to within 5 feet of the vertical boundary of one of the sections in question, and in good coal all the way (a fact proved, but not to be considered here, because in the nature of a discovery subsequent to the entries), it would not show that the section approached was coal land, there being no actual exposure of coal within its limits. And he added that it would be the same if the distance were 3 inches instead of 5 feet, but that 'the moment you cross the line, then it commences to be coal land.' Special emphasis was laid upon the uncertainties incident to coal mining in the cretaceous areas of the West by reason of the occurrence of faults, wants, thinning, and the like; and this, it was said, required that actual exposure of coal within the land, by an outcropping at the surface or an excavation, be accepted as the true and only test. But even such a test was largely discredited by statements that 'a good outcrop at the surface may represent a want below, or a want at the surface may represent a coal below,' and that in following a good discovery a fault or thinning, as well as a want, may be encountered at any moment. It was conceded, however, that the coal horizon-meaning the coal- [233 U.S. 236, 247] bearing strata shown at the outcrop, but not necessarily the coal-passed through the lands in controversy, and one expert, while declaring that he could not make an affidavit that they were coal lands in the sense of 'strictly containing deposits of coal,' candidly added: 'But I would be prepared to make an affidavit that I believe them to contain coal.' Another, although pronouncing the showing at the outcrop and elsewhere insufficient to render the lands valuable for coal mining, said: 'I am not prepared, personally, to either affirm or deny that this land does or does not contain coal. I contend that it is beyond the capacity of any man to say that something exists or does not exist upon which he has no absolute testimony.' It is of some significance that Sneddon-who had long been in the company's service, had been the central figure in the acquisition of these lands, was familar with them and the purpose for which they were sought and acquired, was the company's superintendent when the evidence was taken before the master, and was present during a part, at least, of the time when it was being taken-was not called by the company as a witness, and that statements, declarations, and acts attributed to him and which made against the company were permitted to go undenied and unexplained. We think the evidence, rightly considered, shows with the requisite certainty that at the time of the proceedings in the land office the lands were known to be valuable for coal. Otherwise they had only a nominal value, not to exceed $1.25 an acre, and yet easily ten times that amount was voluntarily expended by the company in acquiring them. It was hardly intending to make an aimless or grossly excessive expenditure. It was a practical concern, operated by practical men. It had located a mine upon the outcrop five years before, and in the meantime had proved the wisdom of the undertaking [233 U.S. 236, 248] by its mining operations. They had disclosed the existence of an extensive bed of valuable coal dipping to the west under the valley, and in that way had supplemented the evidence afforded by the outcrop and its surroundings. Without any doubt these considerations induced the company to believe, and rightly so, that the lands in controversy possessed a value for coal mining greatly in excess of their value for any other purpose. This explains the expenditure and the persistency of the company's efforts to acquire them; and the fact that the earlier effort was obviously fraudulent and unlawful, independently of the character of the lands, serves in no small degree to explain the kindred practices employed in the later effort. In short, the company, without care as to the means, sought and acquired the lands because it regarded them as valuable for coal. Its view and purpose were also reflected by its maps and tax returns. Of course, it was not a bona fide purchaser from Sneddon and Harrison, for they were mere agents representing it as an undisclosed principal. An exposure to the eye of coal upon the particular lands was not essential to give them a then present value for coal mining. They were all adjacent to the outcrop and above the plane of the coal-bearing strata dipping under the valley. In alternate evennumbered sections they substantially paralleled the outcrop for 7 miles, and in two places were separated from it by only a few rods. Those to the north were opposite the company's developed mine (No. 4), and those to the south were opposite the tract acquired through Lees, upon which good coal was disclosed. The outcrop, the disclosures in the vicinity, and the geological formation pointed with convincing force to a workable bed of merchantable coal extending under the valley and penetrating these lands. These conditions were open to common observation, and were such as would appeal to practical men, and be relied upon by [233 U.S. 236, 249] them in making investments for coal mining. They did so appeal to the Cumberland people, as well as this company, both large concerns represented by men of experience, understanding the uncertainties and hazards of the business as well as its rewards. No doubt it has its uncertainties and hazards, but the evidence shows that they are not so pronounced as indicated by the company's experts. There is no fixed rule that lands become valuable for coal only through its actual discovery within their boundaries. On the contrary, they may, and often do, become so through adjacent disclosures and other surrounding or external conditions; and when that question arises in cases such as this, any evidence logically relevant to the issue is admissible, due regard being had to the time to which it must relate. The case of Colorado Coal & I. Co. v. United States, 123 U.S. 307 , 31 L. ed. 182, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 131, relied upon by the coal company, is essentially different from this in that there the court was dealing with a statute excepting from entry lands on which there were 'mines' at the time, a matter particularly noticed in the opinion (p. 328), while here the exception is of 'mineral lands' and 'lands valuable for minerals.' Rev. Stat. 2302, 2318, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 1410, 1423. It will be perceived that we are not here concerned with a mere outcropping of coal with nothing pointing persuasively to its quality, extent, or value; neither are we considering other minerals whose mode of deposition and situation in the earth are so irregular or otherwise unlike coal as to require that they be dealt with along other lines. Decree affirmed. U.S. Supreme Court U S v. DIAMOND COAL & COKE CO, 255 U.S. 323 (1921) 255 U.S. 323 UNITED STATES v. DIAMOND COAL & COKE CO. No. 87. Argued Nov. 11, 1920. Decided, March 7, 1921. [255 U.S. 323, 324] Mr. Assistant Attorney General Nebeker, for the United States. [255 U.S. 323, 325] Mr. W. B. Rodgers, of Anaconda, Mont., for appellee. [255 U.S. 323, 329] Mr. Chief Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court. This suit, begun by the United States against the Diamond Coal & Coke Company in October, 1917, had a threefold object: (1) To cancel 18 patents granted to that number of persons, at dates ranging from 14 to 21 years prior to the commencment of the suit, and covering 2,283 acres of coal land situated in the Evanston land district, state of Wyoming; (2) to cancel deeds of conveyance to the corporation made by the entrymen who [255 U.S. 323, 330] had purchased from the United States the land which the patents embraced; ( 3) to recover the value of coal which it was alleged had been taken by mining operations of the corporation from the land in question during the period stated. It suffices from the view we take of the matters requiring consideration to briefly resume the averments of the bill. It was alleged that in the year 1894 the defendant corporation had formed a conspiracy to defraud the United States of the land covered by the patents by procuring the purchase of said land from the United States by persons acting ostensibly for themselves, but really as the representatives of the corporation and for its sole account and benefit. In furtherance of the conspiracy thus formed, it was alleged that 18 persons described as entrymen, at the suggestion and in the pay of the corporation, made application at the proper land office of the United States to purchase in their own names the land covered by the patents, the land so applied for having been designated by the corporation and the entries being exclusively intended for its benefit. It was charged that these entrymen falsely swore, for the purposes of their applications to purchase, that the applications were made for their own benefit, when in fact they were solely made for the benefit of the corporation; that the entrymen additionally falsely swore that they were in possession of the land, had developed coal mines on it, and were engaged in working the same, when in truth the lands had never been in the possession of the applicants, who had expended no money and had done no work thereon, since the lands were, prior to and at the time of the applications, in the possession of the corporation through its officers or some persons or agents acting for it and for its benefit. It was further alleged that shortly after the entries were made, in furtherance of the fraudulent purpose, and [255 U.S. 323, 331] upon the false allegations and affidavits above stated and before patent issued, the entrymen conveyed the land applied for by warranty deed to the corporation, although there was no allegation concerning the registry or nonregistry of the deeds of conveyance thus made. The bill in addition charged that for the purpose of securing the right which was contemplated for the benefit of the corporation, further false affidavits as to the exclusive interest of the entrymen were made and that all the money paid by way of price for the land or for expenses or otherwise was furnished by the corporation for its own account. It was alleged that the corporation for many years before the transactions thus stated had engaged in the mining, production, and sale of coal in the state and district in which the land covered by the entries was situated; that its operations had been principally carried on in the vicinity of such lands, and that the lands involved in the suit had been mined for coal and large quantities of coal had been and were still being removed therefrom to the irreparable injury of the United States; the value of the coal thus removed being the subject- matter of the claim in that respect to which we have at the outset referred. There were general averments that the previously alleged acts concerning the making of the entries, which were alike in all, were done not only for the purpose of defrauding the United States and enriching the corporation, but in order to conceal the wrong which was being accomplished, and that the acts of concealment were of such a character as to deceive the officers of the United States and to lead them to believe that the entries were what they purported to be, that is, purchases by the entrymen, and to exclude, therefore, not only the knowledge that they were for the account of the corporation, but also to exclude all basis for affording any reasonable ground to put the United States upon inquiry as to the [255 U.S. 323, 332] real situation. Additionally, it was averred that, so completely did the fraud which was committed and its concealment accomplish the purposes thus intended, that the officers of the United States had no knowledge whatever of the fraudulent title acquired by the corporation and no reason to believe in its existence until a short time before the bringing of the suit when, by report of a special agent of the Land Office, knowledge of the true situation was in part conveyed, leading up to a further investigation by the Department of Justice, consequent upon which the suit was commenced. It was moved to dismiss on four grounds: (1) That the bill stated no cause of action; (2) that it was barred by the limitation of the Act of March 3, 1891, c. 559, 26 Stat. 1093 (Comp. St. 4992), as the six-year period Fixed by that act had elapsed; (3) because the facts as to fraud and concealment alleged in the bill were not of such a character as to suspend the operation of the statute; and (4) because those facts were of such a nature as necessarily to impute the knowledge of the fraud complained of, or if not, to make it clear that the failure to seek relief within the statutory time was the result of inexcusable laches. The court, not questioning that in an adequate case the fraud and the concealment thereof would suspend the operation of the statute until the discovery of the fraud (Exploration Co. v. United States, 247 U.S. 435, 445 , 38 S. Sup. Ct. 571), based its conclusion upon the qualifications and limitations inhering in that rule, as stated in the Exploration Case and as previously expounded in Bailey v. Glover, 21 Wall. 342. Concluding that the averments of the bill were insufficient to establish that the failure to discover within the statutory time was not solely attributable to laches, and finding the bar of the statute under these circumstances absolute, the court applied the statute and dismissed the bill. The United States having elected not to avail of leave to amend within a period of 90 days allowed by [255 U.S. 323, 333] the court of its own motion, but to stand on its bill, a final decree was entered dismissing the bill, and the case was taken to the court below. That court, while considering the subject in the light of the burden cast upon the United States resulting from the fact that the time fixed by the statute had run before the suit was brought, and the technical sufficiency of the bill viewed merely from that aspect, proceeded to consider the averments of the bill comprehensively. As a result it concluded (a) that the allegations of the bill did not meet the requirements as to the exertion of due diligence to discover the fraud which they charged had been committed, and (2) that the bar of the statute was applicable because the allegations of the bill stated the existence of facts and circumstances from which knowledge of the fraud was necessarily to be imputed, or from which such inferences were plainly deducible as would have led to discovery if diligence had been exerted; in other words, that there was either knowledge of the fraud within the statutory period, or such laches resulting from failure to make inquiry as to take the case out of the equitable principle by which the positive bar of the statute could be avoided. Before testing the accuracy of the deductions from the averred facts upon which these conclusions are necessarily based, we dispose of a legal contention of the United States, that in any event the propositions were wrongfully applied because under the statute laches in discovering the fraud could not be imputed to the United States. As the statute in express terms deals with the rights of the United States and bars them by the limitation which it prescribes, and as that bar would be effective unless the equitable principle arising from the fraud and its discovery be applied, it must follow, since the doctrine of laches is an inherent ingredient of the equitable principle in question, that the proposition is wholly without [255 U.S. 323, 334] merit because, on the one hand, it seeks to avoid the bar of the statute by invoking the equitable principle suspending its operation, and, on the other, rejects the fundamental principle upon which the equitable doctrine invoked can alone rest. Coming, then, to consider the allegations of the bill for the purpose of testing the conclusions based upon them by the court below, as just stated, we are of opinion that such conclusions cannot be sustained without drawing unauthorized inferences from the facts alleged and thus deciding the case by indulging in mere conjecture. Without going into detail, we briefly advert to the inferences from two subjects dealt with by the court below which illustrate the necessity for the conclusion just stated. In the first place, let it be conceded arguendo that the conveyances from the entrymen to the corporation as alleged, following almost immediately the initiation of the right to purchase and preceding the patents, the uniformity of the method employed, and the surrounding circumstances, would all, if known, have constituted badges of fraud of such a character as to produce the result which the court below based upon them. But the result thus stated depends upon the existence of knowledge of such facts or of knowledge of other facts from which they were reasonably deducible-a situation which does not here exist, as the averments of the bill as to concealment exclude that conclusion. True it is, that in dealing with the question of the technical sufficiency of the pleading the court below directed attention to the fact that it contained no allegation that the conveyances made by the entrymen had not been seasonably recorded; but that in no way justifies the inference that they had been recorded and therefore gave notice of the fraud, even if it be conceded, for the sake of the argument, that such recording was adequate to give such notice-a question which we do not now decide. [255 U.S. 323, 335] So, also, let it be conceded, as held by the court below, that the allegations of the bill as to the possession of the land by the corporation at the time of the purchase by the entrymen and subsequent to their conveyances; of the propinquity of the land to the field of operations of the corporation; of its exploitation by the corporation for the purpose of taking coal therefrom, all in and of themselves, if open and public so as to be known, constituted such indications of fraud as to give notice to the United States, or at least to put it upon inquiry. But again, that concession is here irrelevant since the averments of concealment and other allegations in the bill are susceptible of the construction that the possession of the corporation was clandestine and that its operations as to the property were of the same character because not conducted in its own name but by persons interposed with the very object of concealment. Viewing the case in the light of these considerations, as well as of others to the same effect to which we do not stop to refer, we are of opinion that error was committed in disposing of the bill upon the motion to dismiss, and that the ends of justice require that it should be only finally disposed of after hearing and proof, thus excluding the danger of wrong to result from a final determination of the cause upon mere inferences without proof. It follows that the decree of the court below must be and it is reversed, and the case remanded to the District Court, with directions to set aside its decree of dismissal and to overrule the motion to dismiss, and for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion. Reversed and remanded.