Udall v. Snyder

• Decision Date: 12 February 1969
• Docket Number: No. 9671.,9671.
• Citation: 405 F.2d 1179
• Parties: Stewart L. UDALL, Secretary of the Interior of the United States of America, Appellant, v. Ruth SNYDER, Administratrix of the Estate of C. F. Snyder, Deceased, J. F. Allison, Marilyn Sitton, Administratrix of the Estate of Max Sitton, Deceased, and F. A. Sitton, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

405 F.2d 1179 (1968)

Stewart L. UDALL, Secretary of the Interior of the United States of America, Appellant, v. Ruth SNYDER, Administratrix of the Estate of C. F. Snyder, Deceased, J. F. Allison, Marilyn Sitton, Administratrix of the Estate of Max Sitton, Deceased, and F. A. Sitton, Appellees.

No. 9671.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

May 24, 1968.

On Rehearing February 12, 1969.

George R. Hyde, Washington, D. C. (J. Edward Williams, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen. of the United States, Clyde O. Martz, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lawrence M. Henry, U. S. Atty. for the Dist. of Colorado, Richard T. Spriggs, Asst. U. S. Atty., and Roger P. Marquis, Atty., Dept. of Justice, with him on the brief), for appellant.

Hale C. Tognoni, John P. Frank of Lewis, Roca, Beauchamp and Linton, Phoenix, Ariz. (Robert L. Tognoni, Littleton, Colo., Tognoni & Pugh, Phoenix, Ariz., with him on the brief), for appellees.

Before LEWIS and HILL, Circuit Judges, and CHRISTENSEN, District Judge.

On Rehearing En Banc February 12, 1969.

PER CURIAM.

Administrative proceedings culminated in a decision of the Secretary of the Interior that the appellees' unpatented lode mining claims were null and void for lack of discovery of a valuable mineral deposit¹ as of March 30, 1948 when these lands were withdrawn and reserved for the use of the Atomic Energy Commission subject only to valid existing rights.² No question was or is raised concerning the validity of the withdrawal order.

The trial court upon a review of the administrative record set aside the decision of the Hearing Officer of the Bureau of Land Management declaring the claims in question to be invalid, as confirmed by the District Director of the Bureau and by the Assistant Solicitor of Land Appeals acting for the Secretary of the Interior, on the grounds that the Secretary applied an erroneous test of mineral discovery, that witnesses for the government had been incompetent to testify as experts on the question of discovery and that the evidence was insufficient to support the administrative determination.

We reverse on the authority of United States v. Coleman, 390 U.S. 599, 88 S.Ct. 1327, 20 L.Ed.2d 70, decided April 22, 1968. The appellee before us relied upon the opinion below in Coleman v. United States, 363 F.2d 190 (9 Cir. 1966). The trial court adopted reasoning similar to that of the Ninth Circuit. Cf. companion decision, Garula v. Udall, 268 F.Supp. 910 (D.C.Colo. 1967), today reversed, 405 F.2d 1181 (10 Cir. 1968). The Supreme Court now makes it plain to us that in the case at bar the Secretary applied the approved standard in determining that for want of a valuable mineral deposit no discovery had been made by appellee at the time the land in...