Opinion ID: 612196
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Agency's Interpretation.

Text: 28 By the 1970's, when Brandt-Erichsen entered the 80-acre tract of land and filed his application to obtain a patent, the Bureau of Land Management had issued a number of regulations dealing with land patent applications. Under these regulations, the receiver and register had been replaced by a Bureau of Land Management manager. 43 C.F.R. § 1862.6. The manager issued three different receipts to an entryman as part of the process to obtain land under 43 U.S.C. § 687a before issuing a final certificate. Id. The first receipt was issued after the entryman paid a $10 recording fee and filed a notice of location of claim. 43 C.F.R. § 2562.1(d); see also United States v. Bunch, 64 I.B.L.A. 318, 324 (1982), aff'd sub nom, Bunch v. Kleppe, Civ. No. A76-115 (D.Alaska Jan. 14, 1983). The second receipt was issued when the entryman paid a $10 service fee and submitted the proofs for application of a patent. 43 C.F.R. § 2562.3(b). A final receipt was issued when the entryman paid the purchase price. 43 C.F.R. § 2562.7. Normally, this final receipt was issued after the surveys of the land were completed and the patent had been approved. Id. 29 In a series of decisions, the IBLA has held that 43 U.S.C. § 1165 is not triggered unless the entryman, in addition to fulfilling the other requirements for a patent application, has paid the entire purchase price for the land and received the final receipt. See United States v. Jones, 106 I.B.L.A. 230, 264 (1988) (holding that the requirement the entryman pay the purchase price was a congressionally imposed condition for acquiring the right); Bunch, 64 I.B.L.A. at 330 (holding that the entrywoman was not entitled to a patent under 43 U.S.C. § 1165 because she had not received a final receiver's receipt after payment of the purchase price); United States v. Braniff, 65 I.B.L.A. 94 (1982) (holding that although the entryman paid his application fees and obtained receipts, he failed to obtain the final receipt for payment of the statutory purchase price); United States v. Boyd, 39 I.B.L.A. 321, 328-29 (1979) (holding that appellant failed to show any evidence that final payments had been made). In Bunch, 64 I.B.L.A. at 325, the Board explained that the first two receipts that the entrywoman received did not fall[ ] within the words of the statute and absent payment of the purchase price and issuance of the final receipt, the two-year period of 43 U.S.C. § 1165 had not begun. 30 Although the judiciary is the final arbiter of the issue of statutory construction, an administrative agency's interpretation of a statute it is charged with administering is accorded substantial deference. Haynes v. United States, 891 F.2d 235, 238-39 (9th Cir.1989). The statute at issue, 43 U.S.C. § 1165, is part of the acts that the Department of the Interior is charged with administering. See 43 U.S.C. §§ 1 and 1165 (historical notes). As a result, the decisions of the Interior Board of Land Appeals, a part of the Department of the Interior, on the meaning of a receipt upon final entry for purposes of 43 U.S.C. § 1165 should be given substantial deference. Furthermore, to affirm we need not conclude that the agency's construction was the only one it permissibly could have adopted or even the reading we would have reached if the question initially had arisen in a judicial proceeding, but only that the agency's interpretation is reasonable and not contrary to congressional intent. Chevron U.S.A., 467 U.S. at 843 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. at 2782 n. 11. 31 Requiring payment of the purchase price before section 1165 is triggered is in keeping with the congressional purpose of avoiding delays between the time the entryman completes the patent requirements and the agency adjudicates the final proof. In fact, it furthers this purpose by making sure all requirements are completed. Because the agency's interpretation of this term is reasonable and in keeping with the purpose of the statute as a whole, I conclude that a receipt upon final entry requires the entryman to pay the purchase price to trigger the two-year period under 43 U.S.C. § 1165. Thus, Brandt-Erichsen was required to pay the $2.50 per acre for the approximately 80 acres to obtain a final manager receipt. As the statute was not triggered, Brandt-Erichsen did not obtain equitable title to the land in question. 32 Because there are no genuine issues of material fact and the district court correctly applied 43 U.S.C. § 1165, the grant of summary judgment should be affirmed. 33