Bedroc Ltd. v. United States

In this appeal, we must decide whether sand and gravel are “valuable minerals” within the meaning of the Pittman Underground Water Act (the Act or the Pittman Act), 43 U.S.C. §§ 351-359 (1935). 1 The *1082 now-repealed Act provided grants, or “patents,” of federal public lands to people who found underground sources of water in the deserts of Nevada. Under the terms of the Act, these patents reserved “all the coal and other valuable minerals” to the United States. Pittman Act § 8.

Plaintiff BedRoc Limited 2 brought this action to quiet title in a parcel of land granted under the Act in 1940 to BedRoc’s predecessor in interest. Citing the mineral reservation, the United States has claimed title to the sand and gravel on the parcel; BedRoc contends that sand and gravel are not “valuable minerals” within the meaning of the Act and thus were not reserved to the government. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the United States. We affirm.

We hold that sand and gravel are encompassed by the reservation of “valuable minerals” to the United States. The purpose of the Act and its legislative history instruct us to construe the reservation broadly. Moreover,…