US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Section 7 of the Act of March 3, 1891, c. 56, 26 Stat. 1095, 1099, lays upon the Secretary of the Interior a plain duty to cause a patent to be issued upon a homestead entry when no contest or protest proceeding has been initiated and no order has been made, in his department, for the purpose of challenging the validity of the entry, within two years from the issuance of the final receiver's receipt. chanrobles.com-red

Page 244 U. S. 175

An adverse report by a deputy supervisor of a National Forest, challenging a homestead entry within the forest for insufficiency of residence and cultivation, but merely filed in the General Land Office and not acted on until after the two-year limitation period had expired, held not a "pending contest or protest" within the meaning of § 7 of the Act of March 3, 1891, supra.

Notwithstanding its reluctance to award or sustain a writ of mandamus against an executive officer, the Court is constrained to do so where the duty sought to be enforced is plain and nondiscretionary and the situation exigent.

44 App.D.C. 310 affirmed.

The case is stated in the opinion.