43 U.S.C. § 107 — Penalty for false information

This section punishes a specific kind of lie by a land office worker. Say someone applies to an officer appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to enter (claim) a piece of public land. If that officer knows the truth but falsely tells the applicant the land has already been entered by someone else, and refuses to let the applicant enter it, the officer is personally liable. The officer must pay the applicant $5 for every acre of land the applicant tried to enter. The applicant collects this money by filing a debt lawsuit in any court of record that has jurisdiction over that amount.