United States v. 237,500 Acres of Land

This appeal is from a judgment distributing funds deposited in the district court as just compensation for the taking in condemnation of certain mining claims. On October 11, 1956 judgment was entered fixing awards for the parcels in question, designated as Nos. 549 and 552. Jurisdiction was retained to determine the amount to be allocated out of the awards for the respective interests of the several parties. On November 25, 1957 the district court ordered all of the funds paid to appellee placer claimants and held appellant lode claimants did not have any interest in either of the parcels referred to and consequently had no’ right to any part of the compensation awarded for the taking thereof.

In May, 1940 appellees located two placer mining claims on parcels 549 and 552. In February, 1945 appellants filed notices of location of a lode mining claim on the same parcels. Appellants claimed the right to the whole of the condemnation award on the ground that the appellee placer claimants had allowed their claims to lapse during World War II by failing to file proper notices complying with the requirements of 30 U.S.C. 28a providing conditions for suspension of annual assessment work…