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III IIIIIIIIIIIII III <br />BEFORE THE MINED LAND RECLAMATION BOARD <br />STATE OF COLORADO <br />Notice of Violation No. CV-2000-009 <br />JOINT MOTION OF THE DIVISION OF MINERALS AND GEOLOGY AND <br />JIM AND ANN TATUM TO PROHIBIT BASIN RESOURCES FROM INTRODUCING <br />OPINION EVIDENCE CONTAINED IN ITS EXPERT WITNESS REPORTS <br />The Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology ("DMG") az~d Jim and Ann Tatum ("the <br />Tatums") move this Board to enter apre-hearing order prohibiting Basin Resources, Inc. ("Basin") <br />from introducing the opinion evidence set forth in the company's expert witness reports or any <br />similar opinion evidence that fails to acknowledge and account for the established fact that coal mine <br />subsidence damaged the Tatums' ranch (known as "Solitario") prior to 1997. Although DMG and <br />the Tan~ms re2lize that this Board should ordinarily receive and consider all evidence bearing.nn <br />issues that underlie a challenged enforcement action, Basin's attempt to relitigate the issue of <br />whether subsidence ever caused damage to Solitario violates the settled legal principle that opposing <br />parties are bound by the findings of fact that a court has made in prior litigation between them. <br />The District Court, County Las Animas, Colorado, on page 4 of the Findings of Fact portion <br />of its December 1, 1997, decision in a law suit between the Tatums and Basin, specifically found that <br />"[t]he Tatum residence was considerably damaged by the subsidence, which was caused by the <br />mining operation" at Basin's Golden Eagle Mine.' in the wake of this now settled judicial finding, <br />' DMG and the Tatums attach as Exhibit A to this motion a copy of the District Court's <br />decision in Jnmes (JimJ Tatum and Ann Tatum v. Basin Resources, Inc., Case No. 92 CV 127 (Dec. <br />1, 1997). <br />