United States Alaska Smokeless Coal Co v. Lane

• Decision Date: 10 November 1919
• Docket Number: No. 36,36
• Citation: 40 S.Ct. 33,250 U.S. 549,63 L.Ed. 1135
• Parties: UNITED STATES ex rel. ALASKA SMOKELESS COAL CO. v. LANE, Secretary of Interior, et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

250 U.S. 549

40 S.Ct. 33

63 L.Ed. 1135

UNITED STATES ex rel. ALASKA SMOKELESS COAL CO.

v LANE, Secretary of Interior, et al.

No. 36.

Argued Oct. 14, 1919.

Decided Nov. 10, 1919.

Messrs. Dean Burkheimer and Charles E. Shepard, both of Seattle, Wash., James R. Caton, of Alexandria, Va., and A. A. Hoehling, Jr., Stanton C. Peelle, and C. F. R. Ogilby, all of Washington, D. C., for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Assistant Attorney General Nebeker, for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice McKENNA delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petition for mandamus to require the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the General Land Office to approve and pass to patent the application of the petitioner for certain coal claims, or to show cause why they have not done so.

Respondents replied that they are constituted by law the sole agents of the government in the administration and disposal of the public lands by and through the means appointed by Congress and have exclusive jurisdiction to determine the validity of all claims or applications to enter or acquire any part of them, and that the discharge of that duty involves judgment and discretion.

And further replied that petitioner sought to acquire title to the coal claims under the Act of April 28, 1904, c. 1772, 33 Stat. 525 (Comp. St. §§ 5071-5074), and the Act of May 28, 1908, c. 211, 35 Stat. 424 (Comp. St. §§ 5075-5078), by virtue of the locations set out in the petition. That the locations came on to be heard and that they, respondents, after considering all of the evidence and applying the law thereto, found and determined that the locations involved were invalid, the locators not having opened or improved any mine or mines of coal on any of the tracts of land in controversy, as required by the cited statutes, and that petitioner was not entitled to purchase the same, and thereupon respondents in the exercise of their discretion and judgment rejected the application.

Hence they prayed that the rule against them be discharged and the petition dismissed.

Petitioner demurred to the reply on the ground that it did not set forth any substantial or legal defense. The demurrer was overruled, and, petitioner electing to stand upon it, the rule to show cause was discharged and the petition dismissed. The judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.

The question in the case, therefore, is direct, that is, the power of the Land Office under the cited statutes and the facts recited in the petition. This power, we may say at the outset, necessarily is something more than ministerial, the mere yielding to and registry of any demand and yet, on the other hand, not arbitrary, without statutory direction or regulation by settled rules and principles. In other words, the Land Office is like any other tribunal—its institution and purpose defining and measuring its power, the determining elements being those of fact and law, upon which necessarily judgment must be passed.

What are the elements of fact and of law in the present case? As set forth in the petition they are these:

Sections 2347 to 2352 of the Revised Statutes (Comp. St. §§ 4659-4664) provide for the entry of vacant coal lands, 160 acres to an individual, 320 acres to an association, who have opened and improved, or shall 'open and improve [italics ours], any coal mine or mines upon the public lands.' Section 2348.

These sections were extended to Alaska by an act passed June 6, 1900 (31 Stat. 658, c. 796), and the latter act was amended by the Act of April 28, 1904, supra, section 1 of which provides:

'That any person or association of persons qualified to make entry under the coal land laws of the United States, who shall have opened or improved [italics ours] a coal mine or coal mines on any of the unsurveyed public lands of the United States in the district of Alaska, may locate the lands upon which such mine or mines are situated. * * *'

Section 2 of the act provides for the application for and issue of patent.

The Act of May 28, 1908, provides for the consolidation of claims and their inclusion in a single claim. It is otherwise of no importance.

It will be observed that the only substantial difference between the sections of the Revised Statutes and the act extending them to Alaska is that by the former the right of location is granted to one or those 'who have opened and improved' a mine or mines, and 'who have opened or improved' a mine or mines.

Petitioner in great volume asserts locations under the Act of April 28, 1904, to which locations it has succeeded. The facts which locations it has succeeded. The facts concerning them are not in dispute; but whether what was done constituted an opening or improvement of mines, and constrained a decision other than that given by the Land Office, is in dispute.

Eight locations were made, all of which were conveyed by the asserted locators to petitioner in March, 1909. Surveys were made of the locations, which surveys were duly examined and filed in the proper land office in Alaska; and in 1909 petitioner paid to the Treasurer of the United States $10 for each acre surveyed, in the aggregate $9,905.74, and made application to the then Secretary of the Interior through the local land office for a patent, tendering due proof of the locations of each applicant. Notice was posted.

April 26, 1912, at the local land office (Juneau), under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, proceedings were instituted against the application of petitioner upon the ground, among others, that neither of the claimants prior to making the locations or at any time thereafter and prior to filing notice of the locations, opened or improved any mine or mines of coal on any of the tracts of land as required by the Act of April 28, 1904.

Proofs were taken upon the charges, and the register and receiver sustained them and decided and recommended that the application for a patent be rejected.

Upon an appeal to the Commissioner the decision of the local officers was approved after a circumstantial review of the case; and again, upon appeal from the Commissioner's decision, by the Secretary of the Interior.

All of the officers decided that the acts of Congress contemplated as a basis of a valid location the opening and developing of a producing mine of coal and that work performed upon a claim for prospecting purposes...