Wilbur v. Krushnic, 280 U.S. 306 (1930)
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Wilbur v. Krushnic
No. 63
Argued December 6, 9, 1929
Decided January 6, 1930
280 U.S. 306
CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
1. Under the General Mining Law, a perfected location of a mining claim has the effect of a grant by the United States of the right of present and exclusive possession, and so long as the owner complies with that law, this right, for all practical purposes of ownership, is as good as though secured by a patent. P. 316.
2. Failure to perform the annual labor (Rev.Stats. § 2324; U.S.C. Title 30, § 28) renders the claim subject to loss through relocation by another claimant, but it does not ipso facto forfeit the claim, and no relocation can be made if work be resumed by the owner after default and before such relocation. P. 317
3. So far as the government is concerned, failure to perform labor in any year is without effect, and whenever $500 worth of labor in the aggregate has been performed, and the other requirements, including the payment of the purchase price, have been complied with, the owner is entitled to a patent, even though, in some years, annual assessment labor has been omitted. P. 317.
4. Under the Mineral Leasing Act of February 25, 1920, which, in respect of lands containing oil shale and other deposits therein specified, substituted a policy of leasing for that of location and acquisition of title, but which, by § 37, saves valid claims existent at the date of the Act and "thereafter maintained in compliance with the laws under which instituted," and declares that they may be perfected under such laws, the owner of an oil shale placer claim which was valid at the date of the Act but upon which no labor was performed for the assessment year in which the Act was passed, "maintains" the claim by resuming work thereon in a subsequent year, unless at least some form of challenge on behalf of the United States to the valid existence of the claim has intervened. P. 317.
5. Where the Secretary of the Interior, in declining to issue a patent for a mining claim, interprets and applies a statute in a way contrary to its explicit terms, he departs from a plain official duty, and the error may be corrected by mandamus in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. P. 318.
6. The writ of mandamus in this case should direct a disposal of the application for patent on its merits, unaffected by the temporary default in performance of assessment labor for the year 1920, and that further proceedings be in conformity with the views expressed in this opinion as to the proper interpretation and application of the excepting clause in the Leasing Act, and of Rev.Stats. § 2324. P. 319.
30 F.2d 742 affirmed with modification.
Certiorari, 279 U.S. 831, to review a judgment of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia which reversed a judgment of the Supreme Court of the District dismissing a petition for mandamus.