§613 Procedure for determining title uncertainties

Summary

Federal agencies that manage the surface of U.S. lands can ask the Secretary of the Interior to publish a notice to people with unpatented mining claims on those lands. The agency must file a land description, a certificate from a title or abstract source listing anyone shown to have an interest, and one or more affidavits (from people over 21) saying who, if anyone, was in possession or working the land or describing the inquiry if names or addresses were not found. The Interior will publish a notice in a local paper at the agency’s cost. The notice tells anyone claiming under an unpatented mining claim to file a sworn statement in the office named in the notice within 150 days of the first publication. The sworn statement must give five things about the claim: the date of location; the book and page where it was recorded; the survey section(s) or tie to a mineral monument if unsurveyed; whether the claimant was the locator or a purchaser; and the claimant’s name and address and any other known claimants’ names and addresses. If a claimant fails to file, that failure will be treated as a waiver and relinquishment of any rights that conflict with the limits in section 612, as consent that the claim will be subject to those limits before a patent is issued, and as a bar to later asserting rights contrary to those limits. If published in a daily paper, the notice runs in the Wednesday issue for nine straight weeks; if weekly, in nine straight issues; if semiweekly or triweekly, in the same weekday issue for nine straight weeks. Within 15 days after the first publication, the agency must personally deliver or send by registered or certified mail copies to persons named in the affidavits, to anyone who filed a written request for notice, and to those listed in the title certificate, and then file an affidavit proving delivery or mailing. Anyone who files the required sworn statement gets a hearing set by the Secretary in the county where the land is located (unless the claimant agrees otherwise). A single hearing may cover up to 20 claims unless the parties agree to more. Interior contest rules apply. If a final decision at that hearing upholds a claimant’s rights, later steps under this notice process cannot affect those upheld rights. If the agency fails to deliver or mail the required copy to a person, the publication is ineffective for that person and their rights are not affected by a failure to file a sworn statement. Anyone with an unpatented claim may also record a simple request in the county recorder’s office to receive copies of such notices; that request must list the claimant’s name and address and basic claim details but does not by itself affect title.