R.E. Rodgers and Barbara Rodgers v. James G. Watt, Secretary of the Interior

Appellants, R.E. Rodgers and Barbara J. Rodgers (the Rodgers), appeal from the district court’s grant of the government’s motion for summary judgment. In accepting the recommendation of the magistrate, the district court sustained an administrative decision by the Department of the Interior declaring five of the appellants’ mining claims null and void, because discovery of a valuable mineral deposit was not made pri- or to the land’s withdrawal from operation of the mining laws. On appeal, the Rodgers argue that the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) applied an incorrect legal standard for determining the validity of the claims and that the record lacks substantial evidence to support a prima fa-cie case by the government.

We must view the record as a whole to determine whether substantial evidence supports the ALJ and IBLA decisions. Verrue v. United States, 457 F.2d 1202, 1204 (9th Cir.1972). We find that it does not and reverse the district court’s summary judgment order.

FACTS

On November 29, 1967, a seven-square-mile area of basaltic rock in Lake County, Oregon, known as the Sunstone Area, was classified as open to the mining and…