§52 — Title 43 Public Lands | U.S. Code

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior must hire enough skilled surveyors as deputies and can give them oaths when they begin. He can make rules for how they work, as long as the rules do not conflict with law or instructions from the Bureau of Land Management. He can remove them for negligence or misconduct. He must have base and meridian lines, and other correction parallels and meridians required by law or BLM instructions, surveyed, measured, and marked with monuments for public lands where Indian title has been extinguished. He must also have private land claims surveyed after Congress confirms them to finish public land surveys. He must send the general and detailed plats of lands he surveys to the land office officer the Secretary names and send copies to others the Secretary chooses. He should inspect field surveys when his office work allows, and those travel expenses are paid. If he cannot inspect, he can send a trusted agent; that agent’s expenses and $5 a day in the field are paid, but the inspection may not last more than 30 days or longer than needed. If the Secretary, a designated officer, or a regular salaried employee does the special field work, they get only their necessary expenses in addition to their regular salary.

Title 43, §52

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate shall engage a sufficient number of skillful surveyors as his deputies, to whom he is authorized to administer the necessary oaths upon their appointments. He shall have authority to frame regulations for their direction, not inconsistent with law or the instructions of the Bureau of Land Management, and to remove them for negligence or misconduct in office. Second. He shall cause to be surveyed, measured, and marked, without delay, all base and meridian lines through such points and perpetuated by such monuments, and such other correction parallels and meridians as may be prescribed by law or by instructions from the Bureau of Land Management, in respect to the public lands to which the Indian title has been or may be extinguished. Third. He shall cause to be surveyed all private land claims after they have been confirmed by authority of Congress, so far as may be necessary to complete the survey of the public lands. Fourth. He shall transmit to the officer, as the Secretary of the Interior may designate, of the respective land offices general and particular plats of all lands surveyed by him for each land district; and he shall forward copies of such plats to such officer as the Secretary may designate. Fifth. He shall, so far as is compatible with the desk duties of his office, occasionally inspect the surveying operations while in progress in the field, sufficiently to satisfy himself of the fidelity of the execution of the work according to contract, and the actual and necessary expenses incurred by him while so engaged shall be allowed; and where it is incompatible with his other duties for the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate to devote the time necessary to make a personal inspection of the work in progress, then he is authorized to depute a confidential agent to make such examination; and the actual and necessary expenses of such person shall be allowed and paid for that service, and $5 a day during the examination in the field; but such examination shall not be protracted beyond thirty days; and in no case longer than is actually necessary; and when the Secretary or such officer, or any person employed in his office at a regular salary, is engaged in such special service, he shall receive only his necessary expenses in addition to his regular salary.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Provisions different from those of the fifth paragraph of this section, for inspection of surveying operations, were made by several Sundry Civil Appropriation Acts, in connection with the appropriations for surveys and resurveys, and limited to the expenditure of the particular appropriation. R.S. § 2223 derived from acts May 18, 1796, ch. 29, § 1, 1 Stat. 464; Apr. 29, 1816, ch. 151, § 1, 3 Stat. 325; Mar. 3, 1831, ch. 116, § 1, 4 Stat. 492; Mar. 3, 1853, ch. 145, §§ 3, 10, 10 Stat. 245, 247; Apr. 24, 1874, ch. 127, 18 Stat. 34; Aug. 9, 1876, ch. 256, 19 Stat. 126. Statutory Notes and

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

References to Supervisor of Surveys and Commissioner of General Land Office changed to Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate, reference to manager changed to officer designated by Secretary of the Interior, and “Bureau of Land Management” substituted for “General Land Office” on authority of section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946. See note set out under section 1 of this title. Previously, references to surveyors general were changed to supervisor of surveys and provisions limiting application of section to points “within his surveying district” were omitted on authority of act Mar. 3, 1925, which abolished office of surveyor general and transferred its activities to Field Surveying Service under jurisdiction of United States Supervisor of Surveys.

§52 Surveying Duties