ALASKA-Continued
INDIAN AND NATIVE AFFAIRS—Continued
9. The Alaska Allotment Act, 34 Stat. 197, as amended, 70 Stat. 954,
authorizes the Secretary of the Interior, "in his discretion" to
promulgate a rule that allotments will not be made in units
smaller than forty acres in size and conformed to the regular
rectangular survey pattern and to prescribe by regulation in
advance that a determination of the applicant's use and occupancy
of a significant portion of any conforming forty-acre tract shall
normally entitle the applicant to an allotment of the full tract
where no conflicting claim is involved---.
LAND GRANTS AND SELECTIONS
1. Where an oil and gas lease offer was filed prior to enactment of the
Alaska Statehood Act on July 7, 1958, a selection for the land was
filed thereafter by the Territory of Alaska pursuant to the grant
for the University of Alaska, and a lease was subsequently issued
in response to the offer and prior to the admission of the State of
Alaska on January 3, 1959, it is error to cancel the lease because of
the filing of the selection and it is immaterial that subsequent to
the admission of the State the land was patented to the State pur-
suant to the selection___.
1. The annual rental due for the sixth and succeeding years on non-
competitive oil and gas leases in Alaska issued prior to July 3,
1958, and extended thereafter is at the rate of 50 cents per acre
per annum‒‒‒‒
2. Section 10 of the act of July 3, 1958, amending the Alaska Oil Proviso
of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 to require rentals for noncom-
petitive oil and gas leases in Alaska to be the same as similar
leases for lands elsewhere in the United States, is not applicable
to leases which had been granted 5-year extensions prior to the
act as to the remainder of their extended term, including a 2-year
extension resulting from segregation of the lease by partial as-
signment under section 30(a) of the Mineral Leasing Act,
as amended______
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA GRANT
1. Where an oil and gas lease offer was filed prior to enactment of the
Alaska Statehood Act on July 7, 1958, a selection for the land was
filed thereafter by the Territory of Alaska pursuant to the grant
for the University of Alaska, and a lease was subsequently issued
in response to the offer and prior to the admission of the State of
Alaska on January 3, 1959, it is error to cancel the lease because
of the filing of the selection and it is immaterial that subsequent
to the admission of the State the land was patented to the State
pursuant to the selection__.
1. Any name used by an individual, whether real or fictitious, by which
she may be known or by which she may transact business or
execute contracts, may constitute her signature if affixed by that
APPLICATIONS AND ENTRIES-Continued
GENERALLY-Continued
individual without fraudulent intent and if there is no doubt as to
the identity of the individual, and an oil and gas lease offer in
which the signed name of the offeror differs from the typed name
of the offeror in the first block of the lease form is acceptable if,
in fact, the signature is that of the offeror and the offer is, in all
other respects, acceptable---
1. The filing of concurrent homestead applications by an individual bars
the allowance of either so long as both applications remain of
record and, while the withdrawal of one will permit the allowance
of the other, such allowance will be subject to otherwise inter-
vening rights that have been asserted prior to the withdrawal of
the first application_‒‒‒‒
BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
1. Electric transmission line easement which gives the grantee the right
to maintain and keep parcel of land "at all times free and clear of
trees and brush" includes right to spray small natural growth
conifers which have not reached such height as to threaten physical
or electrical contact with the conductor or which have not reached
such density as to block maintenance access along the right-
of-way------
2. The owner of an electric transmission line easement may fully use
the rights granted by the easement, including rights necessarily
implied or incidental thereto‒‒‒‒
3. The owner of electric transmission line easement is not limited in
maintenance of the easement to those methods known or generally
practiced at the time of acquisition but may use methods of main-
tenance reasonably necessary under existing conditions------
4. The provisions of the Bonneville Project Act which authorize settle-
ment of claims against the Bonneville Power Administration are
applicable to claims for breach of contract involved in appeals
taken to the Board of Contract Appeals from decisions of contract-
ing officers of the Bonneville Power Administration_____
5. The Bonneville Power Administrator, acting as such and for and on
behalf of the United States Entity designated pursuant to the
Canadian Treaty, is authorized to execute appropriate exchange
agreements to effect the unconditional assurance of the delivery
of power agreed to be equivalent to Canada's entitlement to down-
stream power benefits in order to implement the exchange of rati-
fications of the Canadian Treaty and thereby acquire for the
benefit of the United States the advantages flowing therefrom____
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
1. The Director of the Bureau of Land Management has authority at
any time to take up and dispose of any matter pending in a land
office or to review any decision of a subordinate officer with or with-
out an appeal‒‒‒‒‒
1. Nothing in the Reclamation Act of 1902 (32 Stat. 388) or its legisla-
tive history suggests that private landowners with water rights
could participate in a project, pay their share of its cost, but be
exempt from acreage limitation___
1. Where a federal statute provides that the reclamation laws shall
govern the construction, operation, and management of project
works, the excess land provisions of the reclamation laws are
thereby carried into effect unless the terms of the statute provide
otherwise
1. Sections 1 and 4 (b) of the Boulder Canyon Project Act (45 Stat. 1057,
1059; 43 U.S.C. secs. 617, 617 (c)), which require the costs of the
main canal and appurtenant structures to connect with the Im-
perial Valley to be repaid pursuant to reclamation law, carry
into effect the excess land provisions of section 46 of the Omnibus
Adjustment Act of May 25, 1926 (44 Stat. 649; 43 U.S.C. sec.
423e)
2. The provision in section 5 of the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902
(32 Stat. 388, 389; 43 U.S.C. sec. 431) that "no right to the use of
water for land in private ownership shall be sold" for more than
160 acres means that the use of project facilities shall not be
made available to a single owner for service to more than 160
Sections 4 and 5 of the 1902 Act, read together, indicate
that the "sale" referred to is not merely a commercial transaction,
but is the contract by which the government secures repayment
and the water user obtains the range of benefits resulting from
the construction of the federal project‒‒‒‒‒‒‒
3. Nothing in the Reclamation Act of 1902 (32 Stat. 388) or its legisla-
tive history suggests that private landowners with water rights
could participate in a project, pay their share of its cost, but be
exempt from acreage limitation____
4. Neither the existence nor nonexistence of a vested water right is
itself determinative of whether the excess land laws are appli-
cable in any given case-.
5. Under departmental regulations (May 31, 1910, 38 L.D. 646, para. 78;
currently, 43 CFR 230.110), a desert land entryman who owns a
water right can rely on his own effort to convey his water to his
entry without assistance from a government project, thereby
avoiding the requirements of the reclamation law, or he can par-
ticipate in the project. In the latter case he must observe require-
ments of the reclamation law, including land limitations----
6. Where the claimants of existing water rights covering lands in the
Imperial Irrigation District have sought and obtained the con-
struction of a federal reclamation project to eliminate the hazards
of drought, flood and silt and to obtain a canal entirely within the
United States, they must accept the conditions imposed by the
reclamation law, including land limitations__
BUREAU OF RECLAMATION—Continued
EXCESS LANDS-Continued
7. Where Congress has deemed it proper to waive or modify the excess
land laws in certain projects, it has always found it appropriate
to enact positive legislation setting forth the exemption or other
modification in unmistakable terms___.
8. Privately owned lands in the Imperial Irrigation District, even those
assumed to have vested Colorado River water rights, are subject
to the excess land laws__
WATER RIGHT APPLICATIONS
1. The provision in section 5 of the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902
(32 Stat. 388, 389; 43 U.S.C. sec. 431) that "no right to the use of
water for land in private ownership shall be sold" for more than
160 acres means that the use of project facilities shall not be made
available to a single owner for service to more than 160 acres.
Sections 4 and 5 of the 1902 Act, read together, indicate that the
"sale" referred to is not merely a commercial transaction, but is
the contract by which the government secures repayment and the
water user obtains the range of benefits resulting from the con-
struction of the federal project_---
1. A color of title application is properly rejected when a sale for taxes
to a governmental agency has interrupted the statutory period
of a 20-year holding in good faith adverse possession under claim
or color of title within the meaning of the Color of Title Act and
an action to obtain possession by the United States, the true
owner, has been instituted prior to the end of 20 years from the
date of the tax sale____
1. A color of title application is properly rejected when a sale for taxes
to a governmental agency has interrupted the statutory period of
a 20-year holding in good faith adverse possession under claim or
color of title within the meaning of the Color of Title Act and an
action to obtain possession by the United States, the true owner,
has been instituted prior to the end of 20 years from the date of
the tax sale_-_-
2. A color of title application is properly rejected where the deeds under
which the tract applied for has been claimed have a description
from which it is impossible to define and limit the tract applied
for with any certainty, and also where it appears that the appel-
lant cannot establish a holding of the tract in good faith for 20
years since she held it for less than that period and her immediate
predecessor-in-interest was aware of the superior title in the
United States when he conveyed to her since he had previously
filed a color of title application for the tract which had been re-
jected, and, therefore, his holding could not be tacked on to hers
to establish the requisite period----
COLOR OR CLAIM OF TITLE-Continued
1. A color of title application is properly rejected where the deeds under
which the tract applied for has been claimed have a description
from which it is impossible to define and limit the tract applied
for with any certainty, and also where it appears that the appel-
lant cannot establish a holding of the tract in good faith for 20
years since she held it for less than that period and her immediate
predecessor-in-interest was aware of the superior title in the
United States when he conveyed to her since he had previously
filed a color of title application for the tract which had been re-
jected, and, therefore, his holding could not be tacked on to hers
to establish the requisite period---.
1. Under the Constitution the United States may acquire land for many
purposes, including wildlife refuges; may make all needful rules
and regulations respecting this land; and may delegate such
powers to the Secretary of the Interior. These rules and regula-
tions are superior to those of the State where there is a conflict__
1. The general rules of law stated in the Uniform Sales Act and in the
sales provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code form part of
the general Federal common law applicable to Government con-
tracts, if not made inappropriate by such controlling factors as
Federal statutory law. One such rule is the principle of cumula-
tion of warranties_
1. Under a contract for the construction of a transmission line contain-
ing the "Permits and Responsibility for Work, etc.," Clause of
Standard Form 23A (March 1953), as implemented by a provision
that "final acceptance is to be in writing at the time all work is
completed to the satisfaction of the contracting officer,” the con-
tractor is responsible for repairing at his own expense a tower
erected under the contract that before final acceptance of the line
is damaged, without the fault of either party, by logs and debris
thrown against the tower by forces of nature---.
2. The allegation that the logs and debris may have belonged to the Gov-
ernment is not sufficient to shift liability for the tower repairs to
it. Final acceptance may be deferred until after the contracting
officer has had a reasonable opportunity to satisfy himself that
the work fully conforms to all requirements of the contract.
sumption by the Government of responsibility for removal of the
logs and debris is not an assumption of liability for repairs to the
tower which are made by the contractor with knowledge that the
Government disclaims responsibility for such repairs------
3. A claim by a construction contractor for additional compensation on
account of the withdrawal of bids by prospective subcontractors
because of apprehension that the contract might be administered
too strictly by the Government is, in the absence of circumstances
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