Title 43—Public Lands: Interior--Volume 1
PART 3870—ADVERSE CLAIMS, PROTESTS AND CONFLICTS
§ 3871.1   Filing of claim.
(a) An adverse claim must be filed with the authorized officer of the proper office where the application for patent is filed or with the manager of the district in which the land is situated at the time of filing the adverse claim. The claim may be filed by the adverse claimant, or by his duly authorized agent or attorney in fact cognizant of the facts stated.
(b) Where an agent or attorney in fact files the adverse claim he must furnish proof that he is such agent or attorney.
(c) The agent or attorney in fact must sign the statement of the adverse claim within the land district where the claim is situated, stating that it was so signed.
(d) Each adverse claim filed must include the processing fee for adverse claims found in the fee schedule in § 3000.12 of this chapter.
§ 3871.2   Statement of claim.
(a) The adverse claim must fully set forth the nature and extent of the interference or conflict; whether the adverse party claims as a purchaser for valuable consideration or as a locator. If the former, a certified copy of the original location, the original conveyance, a duly certified copy thereof, or an abstract of title from the office of the proper recorder should be furnished, or if the transaction was a merely verbal one he will narrate the circumstances attending the purchase, the date thereof, and the amount paid, which facts should be supported by the statement of one or more witnesses, if any were present at the time, and if he claims as a locator he must file a duly certified copy of the location from the office of the proper recorder.
(b) In order that the “boundaries” and “extent” of the claim may be shown, it will be incumbent upon the adverse claimant to file a plat showing his entire claim, its relative situation or position with the one against which he claims, and the extent of the conflict: Provided, however, That if the application for patent describes the claim by legal subdivisions, the adverse claimant, if also claiming by legal subdivisions, may describe his adverse claim in the same manner without further survey or plat. If the claim is not described by legal subdivisions it will generally be more satisfactory if the plat thereof is made from an actual survey by a mineral surveyor and its correctness officially certified thereon by him.
§ 3871.3   Action by authorized officer.
(a) Upon the adverse claim being filed within the 60-day period of publication, the authorized officer will immediately give notice in writing to the parties that such adverse claim has been filed, informing them that the party who filed the adverse claim will be required within 30 days from the date of such filing to commence proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction to determine the question of right of possession, and to prosecute the same with reasonable diligence to final judgment, and that should such adverse claimant fail to do so, his adverse claim will be considered waived and the application for patent be allowed to proceed upon its merits.
(b) The Act of September 21, 1961 (Pub. L. 87-260; 75 Stat. 541), amends the Act of June 7, 1910 (36 Stat. 459; 48 U.S.C. 386), and provides that adverse suits against mineral entries in Alaska shall be instituted within the 60-day time limit set forth in R.S. 2325 and 2326, (30 U.S.C. 29, 30). The act further provides that where a mineral patent application was filed prior to the effective date of the act, the time in which to file adverse suits is governed by the Act of June 7, 1910. Where a mineral patent application was filed prior to September 21, 1961, the entry will not be allowed until after the expiration of eight months following the publication period.
§ 3871.4   Patent proceedings stayed when adverse claim is filed; exception.
When an adverse claim is filed as aforesaid, the authorized officer will endorse upon the same the precise date of filing and preserve a record of the date of notifications issued thereon; and thereafter all proceedings on the application for patent will be stayed with the exception of the completion of the publication and posting of notices and plat and the filing of the necessary proof thereof, until the controversy shall have been finally adjudicated in court or the adverse claim waiver or withdrawn.
§ 3871.5   Termination of adverse suit.
(a) Where an adverse claim has been filed and suit thereon commenced within the statutory period and final judgment rendered determining the right of possession, it will not be sufficient to file with the authorized officer a certificate of the clerk of the court setting forth the facts as to such judgment, but the successful party must, before he is allowed to make entry, file a certified copy of the judgment roll, together with the other evidence required by R.S. 2326 (30 U.S.C. 30), and a certificate of the clerk of the court under the seal of the court showing, in accord with the record facts of the case, that the judgment mentioned and described in the judgment roll aforesaid is a final judgment; that the time for appeal therefrom has, under the law, expired, and that no such appeal has been filed, or that the defeated party has waived his right to appeal. Other evidence showing such waiver or an abandonment of the litigation may be filed.
(b) Where such suit has been dismissed, a certificate of the clerk of the court to that effect or a certified copy of the order of dismissal will be sufficient.
(c) After an adverse claim has been filed and suit commenced, a relinquishment or other evidence of abandonment of the adverse claim will not be accepted, but the case must be terminated and proof thereof furnished as required by the last two paragraphs.
§ 3871.6   Certificate required when no suit commenced.
Where an adverse claim has been filed but no suit commenced against the applicant for patent within the statutory period, a certificate to that effect by the clerk of the State court having jurisdiction in the case, and also by the clerk of the district court of the United States for the district in which the claim is situated, will be required.
§ 3872.1   Protest against mineral applications.
(a) At any time prior to the issuance of patent, protest may be filed against the patenting of the claim as applied for, upon any ground tending to show that the applicant has failed to comply with the law in any matter essential to a valid entry under the patent proceedings. Such protest cannot, however, be made the means of preserving a surface conflict lost by failure to adverse or lost by the judgment of the court in an adverse suit. One holding a present joint interest in a mineral location included in an application for patent who is excluded from the application, so that his interest would not be protected by the issue of patent thereon, may protest against the issuance of a patent as applied for, setting forth in such protest the nature and extent of his interest in such location, and such a protestant will be deemed a party in interest entitled to appeal. This results from the holding that a co-owner excluded from an application for patent does not have an “adverse” claim within the meaning of R.S. 2325 and 2326 (30 U.S.C. 29, 30). (See Turner v. Sawyer, 150 U.S. 578-586, 37 L. ed. 1189-1191.)
(b) A protest by any party, except a Federal agency, must include the processing fee for protests found in the fee schedule in § 3000.12 of this chapter.
§ 3872.2   Procedure in contest cases.
Parts 1840 and 1850 of this chapter, in cases before the United States, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Department of the Interior will, so far as applicable, govern in all cases and proceedings arising in contests and hearings to determine the character of lands.
§ 3872.3   Presumption as to land returned as mineral.
Public land returned upon the survey records as mineral shall be withheld from entry as agricultural land until the presumption arising from such a return shall be overcome.
§ 3872.4   Procedure to dispute record character of land.
(a) When lands returned as mineral are sought to be entered as agricultural under laws which require the submission of final proof after due notice by publication and posting, the filing of the proper nonmineral statement in the absence of allegations that the land is mineral will be deemed sufficient as a preliminary requirement. A satisfactory showing as to character of land must be made when final proof is submitted.
(b) In case of application to enter, locate, or select such lands as agricultural, under laws in which the submission of final proof after due publication and posting is not required, notice thereof must first be given by publication for 60 days and posting in the local office during the same period, and affirmative proof as to the character of the land submitted. In the absence of allegations that the land is mineral, and upon compliance with this requirement, the entry location, or selection will be allowed, if otherwise regular.
(c) Where as against the claimed right to enter such lands as agricultural it is alleged that the same are mineral, or are applied for as mineral lands, the proceedings in this class of cases will be in the nature of a contest, and the practice will be governed by the rules in force in contest cases.
§ 3872.5   Testimony at hearings to determine character of lands.
(a) At hearings to determine the character of lands the claimants and witnesses will be thoroughly examined with regard to the character of the land; whether the same has been thoroughly prospected; whether or not there exists within the tract or tracts claimed any lode or vein of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposit which has ever been claimed, located, recorded, or worked; whether such work is entirely abandoned, or whether occasionally resumed; if such lode does exist, by whom claimed, under what designation, and in which subdivision of the land it lies; whether any placer mine or mines exist upon the land; if so, what is the character thereof, whether of the shallow-surface description, or of the deep cement, blue lead, or gravel deposits; to what extent mining is carried on when water can be obtained, and what the facilities are for obtaining water for mining purposes; upon what particular 10-acre subdivisions mining has been done, and at what time the land was abandoned for mining purposes, if abandoned at all. In every case, where practicable, an adequate quantity or number of representative samples of the alleged mineral-bearing matter or material should be offered in evidence, with proper identification, to be considered in connection with the record, with which they will be transmitted upon each appeal that may be taken. Testimony may be submitted as to the geological formation and development of mineral on adjoining or adjacent lands and their relevancy.
(b) The testimony should also show the agricultural capacities of the land, what kind of crops are raised thereon, the value thereof; the number of acres actually cultivated for crops of cereals or vegetables, and within which particular 10-acre subdivision such crops are raised; also which of these subdivisions embrace the improvements, giving in detail the extent and value of the improvements, such as house, barn, vineyard, orchard, fencing, etc., and mining improvements.
(c) The testimony should be as full and complete as possible; and in addition to the leading points indicated above, where an attempt is made to prove the mineral character of lands which have been entered under the agricultural laws, it should show at what date, if at all, valuable deposits of minerals were first known to exist on the lands.
§ 3873.1   Segregation of mineral from non-mineral land.
Where a survey is necessary to set apart mineral from non-mineral land the appropriate authorized officer will have special instructions prepared outlining the procedure to be followed in the required survey. The survey will be executed at the expense of the United States. Where, in stock-raising homestead entries, it has been satisfactorily established that there are existent prior unpatented mining claims, the segregation of the latter is not strictly a segregation of mineral from non-mineral land, but rather the procedure adopted to define the boundaries of and provide a legal description for that part of the homestead entry which is not within the segregated mining claims.
§ 3873.2   Effect of decision that land is mineral.
The fact that a certain tract of land is decided upon testimony to the mineral in character is by no means equivalent to an award of the land to a miner. In order to secure a patent for such land, he must proceed as in other cases, in accordance with this part.
§ 3873.3   Non-mineral entry of residue of subdivisions invaded by mining claims.
(a) The authorized officer will accept and approve any application (if otherwise regular), to make a non-mineral entry of the residue of any original lot or legal subdivision which is invaded by mining claims if the tract has already been lotted to exclude such claims. If not so lotted, and if the original lot or legal subdivision is invaded by patented mining claims, or by mining claims covered by pending applications for patent which the non-mineral applicant does not desire to contest, or by approved mining claims of established mineral character, the authorized officer will accept and approve the application (if otherwise regular), exclusive of the conflict with the mining claims.
(b) The authorized officer will allow no non-mineral application for any portion of an original lot or 40-acre legal subdivision, where the tract has not been lotted to show the reduced area by reason of approved surveys of mining claims for which applications for patent have not been filed, until the non-mineral applicant submits a satisfactory showing that such surveyed claims are in fact mineral in character. Applications to have lands which are asserted to be mineral, or mining locations, segregated by survey with a view to the non-mineral appropriation of the remainder, will be made to the authorized officer of the proper office. Such applications must be supported by a written statement of the party in interest, duly corroborated by two or more disinterested persons, or by such other or further evidence as may be required, that the land sought to be segregated as mineral is in fact mineral in character.