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Title 43, Public LandsRelease 119-102

§105 Depositions of Witnesses Residing Outside County

Title 43 › CHAPTER 4 — DISTRICT LAND OFFICES › § 105

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

If a witness lives outside the county where a hearing is held, any party can take that witness’s testimony where the witness lives by written notice at least 10 days before to the other parties. The testimony can be recorded before a United States magistrate judge, a notary public, a judge, or a court clerk. Subpoenas for the witness can come from the officer the Secretary of the Interior names or from the officer taking the deposition. Failing to obey is punished the same way, and the witness gets the same fees, travel pay, penalties, and limits as for a subpoena to appear before the Interior’s officer. The officer who takes the deposition must be paid the same fees allowed in State or Territorial courts. The party taking the deposition must pay those fees, and the officer must attach an itemized bill to the deposition.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §105

Public Lands, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Whenever the witness resides outside the county in which the hearing occurs any party to the proceeding may take the testimony of such witness in the county of such witness’s residence in the form of depositions by giving ten days’ written notice of the time and place of taking such depositions to the opposite party or parties. The depositions may be taken before any United States magistrate judge, notary public, judge, or clerk of a court of record. Subpoenas for witnesses before the officer taking depositions may issue from the office of the officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior or may be issued by the officer taking the depositions, and disobedience thereof, as defined in section 104 of this title, shall also be punished; and the witness shall receive the same fees and mileage and be subject to the same penalties in all respects as in case of violation of a subpoena to appear before the officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior and subject to the same limitations. The fees of the officer taking the depositions shall be the same as those allowed in the State or Territorial courts, and shall be paid by the party taking the deposition, and an itemized account of the fees shall be made by the officer taking the depositions and attached to the depositions.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification The original text of this section referred to both registers and receivers, but reference to the latter was omitted in view of the abolition of such office under acts Mar. 3, 1925, and Oct. 28, 1921, which provided for the consolidation of the two offices under a register only. See, also,

Transfer of Functions

note below.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

“United States magistrate judge” substituted in text for “United States magistrate” pursuant to section 321 of Pub. L. 101–650, set out as a note under section 631 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure. Previously, “United States magistrate” substituted for “United States commissioner” pursuant to Pub. L. 90–578. See chapter 43 (§ 631 et seq.) of Title 28.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

For

Transfer of Functions

of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out under section 1451 of this title. Words “officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior” substituted for “register” on authority of section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946. See note set out under section 1 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 105

Title 43, Public Lands

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102