PATENTS AND WATER-RIGHT CERTIFICATES

May 18, 1916. John Mulligan, 49 L. D. 155 (1922).

13. -Federal government

The Federal Subsistence Homesteads Corporation, being wholly financed and controlled by the United States Government and serving no function other than aiding in the purchase of subsistence homesteads by individuals as provided by section 208 of the National Recovery Act, does not fall within the category of corporations which it was the intention of Congress should be barred from acquiring or controlling lands within Reclamation projects; nor does the statutory limitation of individual holdings to 160 acres apply to such a corporation. Solicitor Margold Opinion, 54 İ.D. 566 (1934).

14. -Joint operations

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A landowner may deed his excess acreage to one of his children, or anyone else for that matter, and arrange to operate the alienated property with his own as one unit, provided he has divested himself of ownership in good faith and the child or other recipient of the property receives the full benefits of the operation of his own acreage. Letter from Commissioner Straus to Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney, December 29, 1948.

Several farmers each holding 160 acres may farm their lands jointly as a unit under a proper mutual agreement, assuming all other requirements of Reclamation law have been met. Letter from Commissioner Straus to Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney, December 29, 1948.

Sec. 4. [United States fiscal agents upon projects-Public record of payments to be kept-Authenticated copies of records to be furnished.]-The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to designate such bonded fiscal agents or officers of the Reclamation Service as he may deem advisable on each reclamation project to whom shall be paid all sums due on reclamation entries or water rights, and the officials so designated shall keep a record for the information of the public of the sums paid and the amount due at any time on account of any entry made or water right purchased under the reclamation act; and the Secretary of the Interior shall make provision for furnishing copies of duly authenticated records of entries upon payment of reasonable fees, which copies shall be admissible in evidence, as are copies authenticated under section eight hundred and eighty-eight of the Revised Statutes. (37 Stat. 267; 43 U.S.C. § 545)

Sec. 5. [United States district courts given jurisdiction.]—Jurisdiction of suits by the United States for the enforcement of the provisions of this act is hereby conferred on the United States district courts of the districts in which the lands are situated. (37 Stat. 267; 43 U.S.C. § 546)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Legislative History. S. 5545, Public Law 256 in the 62nd Congress. S. Rept. No.

608. H.R. Rept. No. 867 and H.R. Rept. No. 1032.

184

PATENTS AND WATER-RIGHT CERTIFICATES FOR DESERT-LAND ENTRYMEN ON RECLAMATION PROJECTS

[Extract from] An act making appropriations to supply deficiencies in appropriations for the fiscal year 1912, and for prior years, and for other purposes. (Act of August 26, 1912, ch. 408, 37 Stat. 595.)

[Patents to desert-land entrymen within reclamation projects-Proof required.]—Any desert-land entryman whose desert-land entry has been embraced within the exterior limits of any land withdrawal or irrigation project under the act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, known as the reclamation act, and who may have obtained a water supply for the land embraced in any such desert-land entry from the reclamation project by the purchase of a water-right certificate, may at any time after having complied with the provisions of the law applicable to such lands and upon proof of the cultivation and reclamation of the land to the extent required by the reclamation act for homestead entrymen, submit proof of such compliance, which proof, if found regular and satisfactory, shall entitle the entryman to a patent and a final water-right certificate under the same terms and conditions as required of homestead entrymen under the act entitled "An act providing for patents on reclamation entries, and for other purposes, approved August ninth, nineteen hundred and twelve." (37 Stat. 610; 43 U.S.C. § 547)

185

SETTLEMENT OF WATER RIGHTS OF YAKIMA INDIANS

[Extract from] An act making apropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes and for other purposes, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915. (Act of August 1, 1914, ch. 222, 38 Stat. 582)

[Additional water to Yakima Indians-Apportionment-Payment of first installment-Plan for distribution, etc., to be submitted to Congress.]—It appearing by the report of the Joint Congressional Commission, created under section twenty-three of the Indian appropriation act, approved June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen (Senate Document numbered Three hundred and thirty-seven, Sixty-third Congress, second session), that the Indians of the Yakima Reservation in the State of Washington, have been unjustly deprived of the portion of the natural flow of the Yakima River to which they are equitably entitled for the purposes of irrigation, having only been allowed one hundred and forty seven cubic feet per second, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to furnish at the northern boundary of said Yakima Indian Reservation, in perpetuity, enough water, in addition to the one hundred and forty seven cubic feet per second heretofore allotted to said Indains, so that there shall be, during the low-water irrigation season, at least seven hundred and twenty cubic feet per second of water available when needed for irrigation, this quantity being considered as equivalent to and in satisfaction of the rights of the Indians in the low-water flow of Yakima River and adequate for the irrigation of forty acres on each Indian allotment; the apportionment of this water to be made under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and there is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum of $635,000 to pay for said water to be covered into the reclamation fund; the amount to be appropriated annually in installments upon estimates certified to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury. One hundred thousand dollars is hereby appropriated to pay the first installment of the amount herein authorized to be expended, and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed to prepare and submit to Congress the most feasible and economical plan for the distribution of said water upon the lands of said Yakima Reservation, in connection with the present system and with a view to reimbursing the Government for any sum it may have expended or may expend for a complete irrigation system for said reservation. (38 Stat. 604)

*

*

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Not Codified. This section of the Act is not codified in the U.S. Code.

Cross Reference, Appropriation for Additional Water for Yakima Reservation. The Act of July 1, 1940, 54 Stat. 707, authorized an appropriation of $800,000 to be credited to the reclamation fund to defray cost of additional water for Indian allot267-067-72-vol. I-15

ments of the Yakima Reservation. The 1940 Act appears herein in chronological order.

Legislative History. H.R. 12579, Public Law 160 in the 63rd Congress. H.R. Rept. No. 199 and H.R. Rept. No. 914. S. Rept. No. 519. H.R. Rept. No. 1007 and H.R. Rept. No. 1031 (conference reports). S. Doc. 533 (conference report).

186

RECLAMATION EXTENSION ACT

An act extending the period of payment under reclamation projects, and for other purposes. (Act of August 13, 1914, ch. 247, 38 Stat. 686)

[Sec. 1. Payments of construction charges under future rights-Entry subject to announcement.]-Any person whose lands hereafter become subject to the terms and conditions of the act approved June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, entitled "An act appropriating the receipts from the sale and disposal of public lands in certain States and Territories to the construction of irrigation works for the reclamation of arid lands," and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, hereafter to be referred to as the reclamation law, and any person who hereafter makes entry thereunder shall at the time of making waterright application or entry, as the case may be, pay into the reclamation fund five per centum of the construction charge fixed for his land as an initial installment, and shall pay the balance of said charge in fifteen annual installments, the first five of which shall each be five per centum of the construction charge and the remainder shall each be seven per centum until the whole amount shall have been paid. The first of the annual installments shall become due and payable on December first of the fifth calendar year after the initial installment: Provided, That any water-right applicant or entryman may, if he so elects, pay the whole or any part of the construction charges owing by him within any shorter period: Provided further, That entry may be made whenever water is available, as announced by the Secretary of the Interior, and the initial payment be made when the charge per acre is established. (38 Stat. 686; 43 U.S.C. §§ 471, 472)

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Codification. The substance of this section is codified as sections 471 and 472, title 43, U.S. Code, but the language is revised to give effect to subsection F of the Fact Finders' Act, which changed the method for paying annual installments after December 5, 1924.

1922 Modification. The Act of May 15, 1922, 42 Stat. 541, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to enter into contract with any legally organized irrigation district whereby the irrigation district shall agree to pay the moneys required to be paid to the United States, and in such event waterright applications on the part of landowners

1. Lands affected

and entrymen, in the discretion of the Secretary, may be dispensed with. In the event of such contract being made, the Secretary in his discretion, may contract for repayment as will best conform to the district and taxation laws of the respective States under which the district is formed and he may contract for penalties and interest charges in case of delinquency in payments as he may deem proper and consistent with such State laws, notwithstanding sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this act. The 1922 Act appears herein in chronological order.

NOTE OF OPINION

Upon acceptance of the Extension Act by the filing of a water-right application, or otherwise, the following described lands become subject to the provisions of section 1 of said act, to wit: (a) Land in private ownership which was not made subject to

the reclamation law prior to August 13, 1914; (b) public land entered not subject to the reclamation law and not subjected to said law after entry and before August 13, 1914. Such land is not considered public land in respect to water-right applications, Form B of the application being used; (c)

August 13, 1914

RECLAMATION EXTENSION ACT-SEC. 2

public land entered subject to the reclamation law on or after August 13, 1914. As a general rule, for land of this class, both entry and water-right application are initiated simultaneously. Sometimes, however, entries are permitted under the last proviso of section 1 before public notice is issued, in which event, the order opening the lands should specify a reasonable time after date of public notice within which water-right application must be made and the initial installment paid. In each of the above cases,

187

the initial installment of the construction charge is payable at the time of filing waterright application, and the second on December 1 of the fifth calendar year. For example, if the initial payment was made December 2, 1914, the second installment would be payable on December 1, 1919. There can be no accumulation of either construction or operation and maintenance charges prior to filing water-right application in these cases. Instructions, 47 L.D. 285 (1919).

Sec. 2. [Payments of construction charges under existing rights.]—Any person whose land or entry has heretofore become subject to the terms and conditions of the reclamation law shall pay the construction charge, or the portion of the construction charge remaining unpaid, in twenty annual installments, the first of which shall become due and payable on December first of the year in which the public notice affecting his land is issued under this act, and subsequent installments on December first of each year thereafter. The first four of such installments shall each be two per centum, the next two installments shall each be four per centum, and the next fourteen each six per centum of the total construction charge, or the portion of the construction charge unpaid at the beginning of such installments. (38 Stat. 687; 43 U.S.C. § 475)

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Codification. Section 475 of title 43, U.S. Code, also includes section 14 of this Act.

1922 Modification. The Act of May 15, 1922, 42 Stat. 541, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to enter into contract with any legally organized irrigation district whereby the irrigation district shall agree to pay the moneys required to be paid to the United States, and in such event waterright applications on the part of landowners and entrymen, in the discretion of the Secretary, may be dispensed with. In the

event of such contract being made, the Secretary in his discretion, may contract for repayment as will best conform to the district and taxation laws of the respective States under which the district is formed and he may contract for penalties and interest charges in case of delinquency in payments as he may deem proper and consistent with such State laws, notwithstanding sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this Act. The 1922 Act appears herein in chronological order.

NOTES OF OPINIONS

conditions of the reclamation law within the meaning of this section. Departmental decision, October 17, 1914.

Lands of the State of Idaho and of other States having similar laws prior to August 13, 1914, in reference to the Federal reclamation law, are subject to the terms and conditions of the reclamation law within the meaning of this section. Departmental decisions, February 8, 1918, and April 1, 1918, overruling departmental decisions, October 17, 1914, and January 14, 1915; C.L. 745 and C.L. 751.

2. Lands not affected

The following-named lands are not subject to the terms and conditions of the reclamation law within the meaning of this