The following excerpt is from Murray v. BEJ Minerals, LLC, 908 F.3d 437 (9th Cir. 2018):
2 The majority goes to pains to distinguish each and every definition presented by the Murrays, in an effort to prove that fossils fall under none of them. While I would agree that no single definition cited by the district court or the parties on appeal is wholly dispositive here, I see no error in the district courts use of these statutes in an effort to discern whether any similar properties exist among these definitions that might shed light on the scope of the term "mineral." See Dollar Plus Stores , 209 P.3d at 219 ; Newman v. Wittmer , 277 Mont. 1, 917 P.2d 926, 930 (1996) ("[S]tatutory definitions provide guidance in interpreting the ordinary and popular meaning of undefined terms in a restrictive covenant.").
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