Best v. Humboldt Placer Mining Company, No. 52

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: DOUGLAS
• Citation: 371 U.S. 334,83 S.Ct. 379,9 L.Ed.2d 350
• Parties: Raymond R. BEST et al., Petitioners, v. HUMBOLDT PLACER MINING COMPANY and Del De Rosier
• Docket Number: No. 52
• Decision Date: 14 January 1963

371 U.S. 334 83 S.Ct. 379 9 L.Ed.2d 350 Raymond R. BEST et al., Petitioners,

v.

HUMBOLDT PLACER MINING COMPANY and Del De Rosier.

No. 52. Argued Dec. 10, 1962. Decided Jan. 14, 1963.

Roger P. Marquis, Washington, D.C., for petitioners.

Charles L. Gilmore, Sacramento, Cal., for respondents.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The United States sued in the District Court to condemn certain property needed for the construction of the

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Trinity River Dam and Reservoir in California,¹ to obtain immediate possession of it, and to secure title to it, the complaint asking that the United States be allowed to reserve authority to have the validity of mining claims determined in administrative proceedings before the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior. The District Court allowed the United States a writ of possession; but no other issues in the action have been determined. See 185 F.Supp. 290.

The United States later instituted a contest proceeding in the local land office of the Bureau seeking an administrative determination of the validity of respondents' mining claims² and alleged that the land embraced within respondents' claims is nonmineral in character and that minerals have not been found within the limits of the claims in sufficient quantities to constitute a valid discovery. Respondents, who had 30 days to answer the administrative complaint or have the allegations taken as confessed,³ brought the present suit to enjoin the officials of the Department of the Interior from proceeding with the administrative action. The District Court granted summary judgment for the United States. 185 F.Supp. 290. The Court of Appeals reversed, 293 F.2d 553. The case is here on a petition for certiorari which we granted. 368 U.S. 983, 82 S.Ct. 600, 7 L.Ed.2d 522.

We deal here with a unique form of property. A mining claim on public lands is a possessory interest in land that is 'mineral in character' and as respects which discovery 'within the limits of the claim' has been made. Cameron v. United States, 252 U.S. 450, 456, 40 S.Ct. 410, 411, 64 L.Ed. 659. The discovery must be of such a character that 'a person of

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ordinary prudence would be justified in the further expenditure of his labor and means, with a reasonable prospect of success, in developing a valuable mine.' Castle v. Womble, 19 L.D. 455, 457; Chrisman v. Miller, 197 U.S. 313, 322, 25 S.Ct. 468, 49 L.Ed. 770; Cameron v. United States, supra, 252 U.S. p. 459, 40 S.Ct. p. 412. A locator who does not carry his claim to patent does not lose his mineral claim, though he does take the risk that his claim will no longer support the issuance of a patent. United States v. Houston, 66 L.D. 161, 165. It must be shown before a patent issues that at the time of the application for patent 'the claim is valuable for minerals,' worked-out claims not qualifying. United States v. Logomarcini, 60 L.D. 371, 373.

Respondents' mining claims are unpatented, the title to the lands in controversy still being in the United States. The claims are, however, valid against the United States if there has been a discovery of mineral within the limits of the claim, if the lands are still mineral, and if other statutory requirements have been met.⁴ Cameron v. United States, supra. The determination of the validity of claims against the public lands was entrusted to the General Land-Office in 1812 (2 Stat. 716) and transferred to the Department of the Interior on its creation in 1849. 9 Stat. 395.⁵ Since that time, the Department has been granted plenary authority over the administration of public lands, including mineral lands; and it has been given broad authority to issue regulations concerning them.⁶ Cameron v. United States, supra—an opinion written by Mr. Justice Van Devanter, who, as Assistant Attorney General for the Interior Department from 1897 to 1903, did more than any other person to give character

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and distinction to the administration of the public lands illustrates the special role of the Department of the Interior in that field. Cameron claimed a valid mineral discovery on public lands. His claim was rejected in administrative proceedings. Cameron, however, would not vacate the land and the United States sued to oust him. The Court said:

'By general statutory provisions the execution of the laws regulating the acquisition of rights in the public lands and the general care of these lands is confided to the Land Department, as a special tribunal; and the Secretary of the Interior, as the head of the department, is charged with seeing that this authority is rightly exercised to the end that valid claims may be recognized, invalid ones eliminated and the rights of the public preserved. * * *

'A mining location which has not gone to patent is of no higher quality and no more immune from attack and investigation than are unpatented claims under the homestead and kindred laws. If valid, it gives to the claimant certain exclusive possessory rights, and so do homestead and desert claims. But...