30 U.S.C. § 30 — Adverse claims; oath of claimants; requisites; waiver; stay of land office proceedings; judicial determination of right of possession; successful claimants’ filing of judgment roll, certificate of labor, and description of claim in land office, and acreage and fee payments; issuance of patents for entire or partial claims upon certification of land office proceedings and judgment roll; alienation of patent title

submitted 101 years ago by Congress to r/title-30-MINERAL-LANDS-AND-MINING · 386 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

This law covers adverse claims against a mining claim filed during the notice period. The claimant must sue in court within 30 days or lose the claim. After a court rules, the winner can pay for the land and get a patent, or deed, to it.

If someone files an adverse claim against a mining claim while the claim is being published for notice, here's what has to happen. The adverse claim must be made under oath. It has to spell out the nature, boundaries, and extent of the claim being made. Once the adverse claim is filed, everything else about the mining claim stops. The only steps that still go forward are publishing the notice and filing the oath. Everything stays frozen until a court with the right authority settles the dispute, or until the adverse claimant gives up the claim. The adverse claimant has 30 days after filing to start a court case. That case has to decide who actually has the right to possess the land. The claimant must also push the case forward with "reasonable diligence" — meaning without unnecessary delay — until there's a final judgment. If the claimant doesn't do this, that counts as giving up the adverse claim. Once the court rules, the winner doesn't need to give any more notice. The winning party — for all or part of the claim — can file a certified copy of the court's judgment with the land office register. They also need a certificate from the Director of the Bureau of Land Management confirming the required work or improvements were made on the land, plus a description of the claim, just like in other cases. The winner then pays the register $5 per acre, plus the normal fees. After that, the register sends the whole case file and judgment to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management. A patent — the official document transferring ownership — is then issued for the claim, or for whatever part of it the court found the applicant actually owns. If the court's decision splits the claim among several people, each of them can follow the same process for their own portion: pay for it, pay the fees, and file the required certificate and description. The register then certifies each case to the Director, and a patent goes out to each person for their share. Finally, nothing in this section stops someone who receives a patent for a mining claim from later selling or transferring that title to anyone else.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

Where an adverse claim is filed during the period of publication, it shall be upon oath of the person or persons making the same, and shall show the nature, boundaries, and extent of such adverse claim, and all proceedings, except the publication of notice and making and filing of the affidavit thereof, shall be stayed until the controversy shall have been settled or decided by a court of competent jurisdiction, or the adverse claim waived. It shall be the duty of the adverse claimant, within thirty days after filing his claim, to commence proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction, to determine the question of the right of possession, and prosecute the same with reasonable diligence to final judgment; and a failure so to do shall be a waiver of his adverse claim. After such judgment shall have been rendered, the party entitled to the possession of the claim, or any portion thereof, may, without giving further notice, file a certified copy of the judgment roll with the register of the land office, together with the certificate of the Director of the Bureau of Land Management that the requisite amount of labor has been expended or improvements made thereon, and the description required in other cases, and shall pay to the register $5 per acre for his claim, together with the proper fees, whereupon the whole proceedings and the judgment roll shall be certified by the register to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, and a patent shall issue thereon for the claim, or such portion thereof as the applicant shall appear, from the decision of the court, to rightly possess. If it appears from the decision of the court that several parties are entitled to separate and different portions of the claim, each party may pay for his portion of the claim, with the proper fees, and file the certificate and description by the Director of the Bureau of Land Management whereupon the register shall certify the proceedings and judgment roll to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, as in the preceding case, and patents shall issue to the several parties according to their respective rights. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the alienation of the title conveyed by a patent for a mining claim to any person whatever.

Source credit: (R.S. § 2326; Mar. 3, 1925, ch. 462, 43 Stat. 1144, 1145; 1946 Reorg. Plan No. 3, § 403, eff. July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7876, 60 Stat. 1100.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1925Enacted · Act of Mar. 3, 1925, ch. 462 · 43 Stat. 1144, 1145

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