In all cases where any person makes an application for a patent to any lode, claim, placer claim, millsite, or other mining property under the mining laws of the United States, and any other person claiming adversely to such applicant files an adverse claim in the proper land office or brings a suit for the purpose of determining the title, or right of possession, to such mining property, or any part thereof, if such adverse claimant, being plaintiff in such suit, prevails, so as to recover costs therein, he shall also recover and be entitled to tax as a part of his said costs all disbursements and expense necessarily incurred and paid by him for plats, abstracts, and copies of papers filed in said land office with his adverse claim, and also a reasonable counsel fee, not exceeding fifty dollars in any case, for the expense of preparing his said adverse claim.
Source: L. 1876: p. 54, § 1. G.L. § 349. G.S. § 423. R.S. 08: § 1061. C.L. § 6577. CSA: C. 43, § 7. CRS 53: § 33-1-16. C.R.S. 1963: § 33-1-16.
ANNOTATION
Attorney fees are not recoverable as costs under this section. In an adverse suit between the owners of two conflicting mining claims, where after judgment was entered it was on motion of the successful party amended so as to include an attorney fee and the expense of adverse, in accordance with a stipulation between the parties made before trial, the sums thus included in the judgment were a part of the judgment and not costs. Hiwassee Gold Mining Co. v. Hotchkiss Mt. Mining & Reduction Co., 16 Colo. App. 22, 63 P. 708 (1901).