43 U.S.C. § 423c — Exchange of unpatented entries; entries, farms or private lands, eliminated from project; rights not assignable; rights of lienholders; preference to ex-service men

submitted 100 years ago by ch. 383 to r/title-43-PUBLIC-LANDS · 426 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

Settlers who lose land to a reclamation project can trade it for other public land. They keep credit for past residence, improvements, and payments, and private landowners get a similar swap option. These exchange rights can't be transferred, and veterans get priority over other applicants for the same land.

This section gives settlers and landowners a way to trade land that got cut out of a reclamation project. If you had an unpatented entry (an unfinished public-land claim) on land that got eliminated from the project, or if your water-right entry was cut down so much that what's left can't support a family, you can exchange your entry for other public land — either within the same project or in a different federal reclamation project. You keep credit under the homestead laws for the time you already lived on, improved, and farmed your original entry, and you keep credit for any construction charges you already paid on it. If you had already completed final proof on your original entry, you don't have to redo that proof on the new entry. If your farm unit shrank because part of it was eliminated as permanently unproductive, you can claim an equal amount of available public land on the same project, near your reduced farm unit, keeping all the same credits described above. If you're a private landowner whose land got eliminated from the project, you can — with the Secretary of the Interior's approval and free of any liens or mortgages — give that land (up to 160 acres) to the United States, and pick an equal amount of vacant public land within the irrigable area of the same or another federal reclamation project. You get credit toward the new land's construction cost equal to what you already paid on your old land. The Secretary of the Interior can reorganize and consolidate farm units as needed to carry this out. These exchange rights cannot be assigned to anyone else. When administering this section and section 423a, the Secretary of the Interior must fairly consider the rights of any lienholders. And if two settlers both apply for the same farm unit under this exchange process, and one of them is an ex-service man as defined in section 438, that veteran gets preference.

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

Settlers who have unpatented entries under any of the public land laws embracing lands which have been eliminated from the project, or whose entries under water rights have been so reduced that the remaining area is insufficient to support a family, shall be entitled to exchange their entries for other public lands within the same project or any other existing Federal reclamation project, with credit under the homestead laws for residence, improvement, and cultivation made or performed by them upon their original entries and with credit upon the new entry for any construction charges paid upon or in connection with the original entry: Provided, That when satisfactory final proof has been made on the original entry it shall not be necessary to submit final proof upon the lieu entry. Any entryman whose entry or farm unit is reduced by the elimination of permanently unproductive land shall be entitled to enter an equal amount of available public land on the same project contiguous to or in the vicinity of the farm unit reduced by elimination, with all credits in this section hereinbefore specified in lieu of the lands eliminated. Owners of private lands so eliminated from the project may, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, and free from all encumbrances, relinquish and convey to the United States lands so owned and held by them, not exceeding an area of one hundred and sixty acres, and select an equal area of vacant public land within the irrigable area of the same or any other Federal reclamation project, with credit upon the construction costs of the lands selected to the extent and in the amount paid upon or in connection with their relinquished lands, and the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to revise and consolidate farm units, so far as this may be made necessary or advisable, with a view to carrying out the provisions of this section: Provided further, That the rights extended under this section shall not be assignable: And provided further, That in administering the provisions of this section and section 423a of this title, the Secretary of the Interior shall take into consideration the rights and interests of lien holders, as to him may seem just and equitable: Provided further, That where two entrymen apply for the same farm unit under the exchange provisions of this section, only one whom 1 is an ex-service man, as defined by section 438 2 of this title, the ex-service man shall have a preference in making such exchange.

Source credit: (May 25, 1926, ch. 383, § 44, 44 Stat. 648.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1926Enacted · Act of May 25, 1926, ch. 383 · 44 Stat. 648

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 383 on 1926-05-25.

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