Lavonne v. Grewell v. James G. Watt, Secretary of the Interior

Mrs. Grewell took possession and occupied a five acre homesite near Nenana, Alaska, in July 1965 under the provisions of 43 U.S.C. § 687a. In July 1970, she applied to purchase the site, sending the $12.50 purchase price, and asserting that she had complied with statutory requirements for habitation and improvement. Her address during this period was in care of General Delivery, Nenana, Alaska — a town of some 362 inhabitants, according to the 1970 census. In April 1972, she sent the usual pink change-of-address card to the Nenana Post Office, instructing that her mail be forwarded to her at Box 23, Arlington, Washington. She received mail from Nenana, so forwarded, into 1974 — although the precise dates of receipt are not clear. On August 9, 1974, more than four years after her application to purchase the site, the Fairbanks office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sent her a notice addressed to General Delivery, Nenana, informing her that proceedings were being taken by the Secretary to contest her claim to the site and advising her that she had thirty days in which to respond to the complaint. The Nenana Post Office returned the letter to the BLM on September 12, 1974,…