given such testimony without any actual knowledge of any statement made in the testimony of either of the others. § 1823.2-3 Advice concerning laws and penalties for false swearing. Officers taking affidavits and testimony should call the attention of parties and witnesses to the laws respecting false swearing and the penalties therefor and inform them of the purpose of the Government to hold all persons to a strict accountability for any statements made by them. § 1823.2-4 Fees; costs. (a) Reducing testimony to writing. On all final proofs made before the officer of the Bureau of Land Management authorized to take proofs, the claimant must pay to the authorized officer the costs of reducing the testimony to writing, as determined by the authorized officer. No proof shall be accepted or approved until such payment has been made. § 1823.3 Transmittal of proof papers. The officer who has taken a proof should, after duly certifying the papers, promptly transmit them to the authorized officer. In no case should the transmittal thereof be left to the claimant. § 1823.4 Proof on entries in more than one district. (a) In submitting proof, the two entries should be treated as one, and the published notice of intention should describe all the land and specify in which land district each part of the claim is located. If the notice is published correctly and the proof is satisfactory, the authorized officer who issued the notice for publication will issue final certificate for the portion within his land district on payment of the testimony fees and payment of the commissions and (if required) the purchase money due for the land in his district. He will then advise the authorized officer of the district wherein the remainder of the claim is located, who will, on receipt of the final commissions and purchase money (if any) due for the part in his district, issue final certificate for that portion without further proof. (b) Should a proof be rejected by the office from which the notice of intention is issued the appeal or further showing must be filed in the office which rejected the proof. § 1823.5 Conduct of officers. § 1823.5-1 Prohibited activities. No officer authorized to take final proofs shall, directly or indirectly, either as agent, attorney, or otherwise, in any manner or by any means cause, aid, encourage, induce, or assist any person wrongfully or illegally to acquire, or attempt to acquire, any title to, interest in, use of, or control over any public lands belonging to the United States. Subpart 1824-Publication and Posting of Notices AUTHORITY: 20 Stat. 472; 43 U.S.C. 251. SOURCE: 35 FR 9521, June 13, 1970, unless otherwise noted. § 1824.0-1 Purpose. The object of the law requiring publication of notices of intended final proof on entries of public lands is to bring to the knowledge and attention of all persons who are or who might be interested in the lands described therein or who have information concerning the illegality or invalidity of the asserted claims thereto, the fact that it is proposed to establish and perfect such claims, to the end that they may interpose any objection they may have, or communicate information possessed by them to the officers of the Bureau of Land Management. § 1824.1 Selection of newspaper. § 1824.1-1 Qualifications of newspaper. (a) A notice of intended final proof must be published in a newspaper of established character and of general circulation in the vicinity of the land affected thereby, such paper having a fixed and well-known place of publication. No newspaper shall be deemed a qualified medium of notice unless it shall have been continuously pub lished during an unbroken period of 6 months immediately preceding the publication of the notice, nor unless it shall have applied for and been granted the privilege of transportation in and by the United States mails at the rate provided by law for second-class matter (39 CFR Part 132). § 1824.1-2 Discretionary authority of authorized officer; limitations. (a) The law invests authorized officers with discretion in the selection of newspapers to be the media of notice in such cases as are here referred to, but that discretion is official in character, and not a purely personal and arbitrary power to be exercised without regard for the object of the law by which it is conferred. (b) In designating papers in which notices of intention to make final proof under the act of March 3, 1879 (20 Stat. 472; 43 U.S.C. 251) shall be published, the authorized officer shall designate only such reputable papers of general circulation nearest the land applied for, the rates of which do not exceed the rates established by State laws for the publication of legal notices. § 1824.2 Payment for republication of notice. (a) The law imposes upon managers the duty of procuring the publication of proper final-proof notices, and charges the claimant with no obligation in that behalf, except that he shall bear and pay the cost of such publication. (b) Neglect of the duty defined in paragraph (a) of this section, resulting in a requirement of republication, should not visit its penalty upon the claimant. In all such cases, therefore, the entire cost of such republication shall be borne by the Government. If an error is committed by the printer of the paper in which the notice appears, the manager may require such printer to correct his error by publishing the notice anew for the necessary length of time at his own expense, and for his refusal to do so may decline to designate his said paper as an agency of notice in cases thereafter arising. § 1824.3 Frequency of publication. (a) In many cases it is necessary to designate a daily paper in which to publish the notices of intention to submit final proof required to be given by homestead and desert land entrymen as well as the notices of location of other claims. (b) The expense of publishing such notices for the prescribed period in every issue of a daily paper is often prohibitive, and the object of publication of such notices can be accomplished by a less number of insertions. Therefore, in all cases where the law does not specifically otherwise direct, publication will be made as follows: (1) Where publication is required for 30 days, if the authorized officer designates a daily paper, the notice should be published in the Wednesday issue for five consecutive weeks; if weekly, in five consecutive issues, and if semiweekly, or triweekly, in any one of the weekly issues for five consecutive weeks. (2) Where publication is required for 60 days, except in mining cases, if the authorized officer designates a daily paper the notice should be published in the Wednesday issues for nine consecutive issues; if weekly in nine consecutive issues; if semiweekly or triweekly in any one of the weekly issues for nine consecutive weeks. (c) Publication of notice in mining cases must be made in accordance with § 3862.4-1 of this chapter. Subpart 1825-Relinquishments § 1825.1 When relinquished land becomes subject to further appropriation. (a) Upon the filing in the proper office of the relinquishment of a homestead claim, the land, if otherwise available, will at once become subject to further application or other appropriation in accordance with the applicable public land laws. A provision to this effect is contained in section 1 of the act of May 14, 1880 (21 Stat. 140; 43 U.S.C. 202). (b) Upon the filing of a relinquishment of an entry or claim (other than a homestead claim), or a lease, the land will not become subject to further application or other appropri ation until the entry, claim or lease has been canceled pursuant to the relinquishment and the fact of the cancellation has been noted on the tract books in the proper office. (R.S. 2478; 43 U.S.C. 1201) § 1825.2 Relinquishment of right-of-way. The relinquishment of an approved right-of-way may be conditioned upon the approval of a subsequent application, filed as an amendment to the approved right-of-way, or as an independent application, but conflicting in whole or in part with the approved right-of-way. Such a relinquishment will not be accepted and noted on the proper office tract books until action on the subsequent application is taken. (R.S. 2478; 43 U.S.C. 1201) Subpart 1826-Reinstatement of Canceled Entries § 1826.1 Application for reinstatement. (a) An application for the reinstatement of a canceled entry, while pending, operates to reserve the land covered thereby from other disposition. (b) Applications for reinstatement of canceled entries must be filed in the proper office and must be executed by the entryman, his heirs, legal representatives, assigns, or transferees, as the case may require. If made by other than the entryman, such petition for reinstatement must fully set forth the nature and extent of petitioner's interest in the land, how acquired, and the names and addresses of any other person or persons who have or claim an interest therein. All petitions for reinstatement should set forth all facts and state clearly and concisely upon, what grounds reinstatement is urged. Such petition must be signed by the applicant. (c) Applications for reinstatement of canceled entries executed by agents and attorneys will not be recognized. (d) Should an application for reinstatement be filed not conforming to the foregoing, the authorized officer will promptly advise the party thereof, calling his attention to the defects and allow 15 days in which to file a proper application. (e) All applications must be accompanined by an application service fee of $10 which is not returnable. (R.S. 2478; 43 U.S.C. 1201) PART 1840-APPEALS PROCEDURES § 1840.1 Cross reference. For special procedural rules applicable to appeals from decisions of Bureau of Land Management officers or of administrative law judges, within the jurisdiction of the Board of Land Appeals, Office of Hearings and Appeals, see Subpart E of Part 4 of this title. Subpart A of Part 4 and all of the general rules in Subpart B of Part 4 of this title not inconsistent with the special rules in Subpart E of Part 4 of this title are also applicable to such appeals procedures. (R.S. 2478, as amended; 43 U.S.C. 1201) [36 FR 15119, Aug. 13, 1971] PART 1850-HEARINGS PROCEDURES Subpart 1850-Hearing Procedures; General § 1850.1 Cross reference. For special procedural rules applicable to hearings in public lands cases, including hearings under the Federal Range Code for Grazing Districts and hearings in both Government and private contest proceedings, within the jurisdiction of the Board of Land Appeals, Office of Hearings and Appeals, see Subpart E of Part 4 of this title. Subpart A of Part 4 and all of the general rules in Subpart B of Part 4 of this title not inconsistent with the special rules in Subpart E of Part 4 of this title are also applicable to such hearings, contest, and protest procedures. (R.S. 2478, as amended; 43 U.S.C. 1201) [36 FR 15119, Aug. 13, 1971] § 1862.0-3 Authority. (a) Patents for all grants of land shall be issued under the authority of the Director and signed in the name of the United States (act of June 17, 1948, 62 Stat. 476; 43 U.S.C. 15). The patents shall be recorded in the Bureau of Land Management in books kept for that purpose. (b) Where a conveyance of land is made to the United States in connection with an application for amendment of a patented entry or entries, for an exchange of lands or for any other purpose except exchange transactions involving lands under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture, and the application in connection with which the conveyance was made is thereafter withdrawn or rejected, the Director, Bureau of Land Management is authorized and directed by section 6 of the act of April 28, 1930 (46 Stat. 257; 43 U.S.C. 872), if the deed of conveyance has been recorded, to execute a quit-claim deed of the conveyed land to the party or parties entitled thereto. (a) Patents for lands entered or located under general laws can be issued only in the name of the party making the entry or location, or, in case of his death before making proof, to the statutory successor making the proof, provided by law. (b) The recitals and description of land in patents will in all cases follow the manager's certificate of entry or location, as prescribed by law. (c) The Bureau of Land Management will cause a new patent to be issued whenever it appears that a patent was regularly issued and the patent record on file in the Bureau of Land Management is imperfect in that it does not contain the name, or the initials, of the signing and the countersigning officers. § 1862.2 Delivery. (a) Issued on or after August 1, 1950. When a patent issued on or after August 1, 1950, is ready for delivery it will be transmitted to the patentee or his or her recognized agent or successor in interest. § 1862.3 Issuance of supplemental noncoal patents. (a) The act of Congress approved April 14, 1914 (38 Stat. 335; 30 U.S.C. 82), authorized and directed the Secretary of the Interior: In cases where patents for public lands have been issued to entrymen under the provisions of the acts of Congress approved March third, nineteen hundred and nine, and June twenty-second, nineteen hundred and ten, reserving to the United States all coal deposits therein, and lands so patented are subsequently classified as noncoal in character, to issue new or supplemental patents without such reservation. (b) The act is construed to affect all filings, locations, selections, or entries upon which patent or its equivalent had issued, or might thereafter issue, containing a reservation of the coal in the land to the United States under the act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. 844; 30 U.S.C. 81), or the act of June 22, 1910 (36 Stat. 583; 30 U.S.C. 83-85), such land having subsequently been finally classified as non-coal character. § 1862.4 Patent to be withheld pending report from Forest Service. In no claim, mineral or non-mineral, shall patent issue for land within a national forest until the Bureau of Land Management is notified by, or ascertains from, the Forest Service, that the claim will not be contested. A claim may be contested by the Forest Service at any time prior to the issuance of patent. § 1862.5 Suits to vacate and annul patents. (a) Suits to vacate and annul patents shall only be brought within 6 years after the date of the issue of such patents (26 Stat. 1093; 43 U.S.C. 1166). In cases of fraud, the statute has been construed not to commence to run "until discovery of the fraud." Exploration Co., Limited, et al. v. United States (247 U.S. 435, 62 L. ed. 1200). § 1862.6 Patent to issue after 2 years from date of manager's final receipt. (a) The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Thomas J. Stockley et al., appellants, v. the United States, decided January 2, 1923 (260 U.S. 532, 67 L. ed. 390) holds that after the lapse of 2 years from the date of the issuance of the "receiver's receipt" upon the final entry of any tract of land under the homestead, or desert-land laws, such entry, entitled to patent under the proviso to section 7 of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1098; 43 U.S.C. 1165), regardless of whether or not the manager's final certificate has issued. (b) The Supreme Court of the United States in Payne v. U.S. ex rel. Newton (255 U.S. 438, 65 L. ed. 720), decided that Newton was entitled to a patent on his homestead entry under the proviso to section 7 of the act of March 3, 1891, 2 years having elapsed from the date of the issuance of the receiver's final receipt upon final entry, and there being no contest or protest pending against the validity of the entry, but stated that the purpose of the statute was: To require that the right to a patent which for 2 years has been evidenced by a receiver's receipt, and at the end of that The receipts formerly issued by the receivers are now issued by the managers. period stands unchallenged, shall be recognized and given effect by the issue of the patent without further waiting or delay, and thus to transfer from the land officers to the regular judicial tribunals the authority to deal with any subsequent controversy over the validity of the entry, as would be the case if the patent were issued in the absence of the statute. CROSS REFERENCES: For mineral reservations, see Subpart 2093 of this chapter; for rights-of-way for roadways, see Part 2800 of this chapter. Subpart 1863-Other Title § 1863.5 Title transfer to the Government. § 1863.5-1 Evidence of title. Evidence of title, when required by the regulations, must be submitted in such form and by such abstracter or company as may be satisfactory to the Bureau of Land Management. A policy of title insurance, or a certificate of title, may be accepted in lieu of an abstract, in proper cases, when issued by a title company. A policy of title insurance when furnished must be free from conditions and stipulations not acceptable to the Department of the Interior. A certificate of title will be accepted only where the certificate is made to the Government, or expressly for its benefit and where the interests of the Government will be sufficiently protected thereby. (R.S. 2478; 43 U.S.C. 1201) CROSS REFERENCE: For evidence of title in mining cases, see § 3862.1-3 of this chapter. |