Lankford
Lankford v. United States
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
Plaintiff Steve Lankford challenges the Interior Board of Land Appeals’ (IBLA) determination that he forfeited five unpatented mining claims. The IBLA based its decision on the lack of any record that the appropriate Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office received Lankford’s 1995 annual claim maintenance fee before the applicable deadline.
1. Federal mining statutes effective in 1995 specified that a “failure to pay” the fee by the deadline “conclusively constitute[ed] a forfeiture” of the claim. 30 U.S.C. §§ 28f, 28i (1994). The statutes directed the Secretary of the Interior to promulgate regulations to carry out the fee provisions. Id. § 28k. Pursuant to this authority, BLM regulations specified that the agency must receive maintenance fees by the due date or, if the fee payment was contained in an envelope postmarked by the due date, within fifteen days after the due date. 43 C.F.R. § 3833.0-5 (1995).
Lankford maintains that this regulation is not controlling because it appears in a part of the regulations headed “Definitions.” But the sentence specifying the receipt requirement explicitly applies to “a ... fee” as well as to “a filing,” and so is in addition…