§188a — Title 30 Mineral Lands and Mining | U.S. Code

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior can accept a lease surrender filed with the Bureau of Land Management after the rent becomes due but before the rent is paid. The leaseholder must pay the rent owed for the months before surrender on a prorated monthly basis. This can only happen if the late filing was not due to carelessness, and it does not apply to cases sent to the Department of Justice for a lawsuit.

Title 30, §188a

Mineral Lands and Mining — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to accept the surrender of any lease issued pursuant to any of the provisions of this chapter, or any amendment thereof, where the surrender is filed in the Bureau of Land Management subsequent to the accrual but prior to the payment of the yearly rental due under the lease, upon payment of the accrued rental on a pro rata monthly basis for the portion of the lease year prior to the filing of the surrender. The authority granted to the Secretary of the Interior by this section shall extend only to cases in which he finds that the failure of the lessee to file a timely surrender of the lease prior to the accrual of the rental was not due to a lack of reasonable diligence, but it shall not extend to claims or cases which have been referred to the Department of Justice for purposes of suit.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was not enacted as part of act Feb. 25, 1920, ch. 85, 41 Stat. 437, known as the Mineral Leasing Act, which comprises this chapter.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

“Bureau of Land Management” substituted in text for “General Land Office” on authority of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, § 403, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.

§188a Surrender of Leases