§ 13. — Original papers on file as evidence.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 43USC13]
TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS
CHAPTER 1--BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Sec. 13. Original papers on file as evidence
Whenever the officer, as the Secretary of the Interior may
designate, of any United States land office shall be served with a
subpoena duces tecum or other valid legal process requiring him to
produce, in any United States court or in any court of record of any
State, the original application for entry of public lands or the final
proof of residence and cultivation or any other original papers on file
in the Bureau of Land Management of the United States on which a patent
to land has been issued or which furnish the basis for such patent, it
shall be the duty of such officer to at once notify the Secretary of the
Interior, or such officer as he may designate, of the service of such
process, specifying the particular papers he is required to produce, and
upon receipt of such notice from any such officer of a United States
land office the Secretary or such officer designated by him shall at
once transmit to the officer of such land office the original papers
specified in such notice, and which such officer is required to produce,
and to attach to such papers a certificate, under seal of his office,
properly authenticating them as the original papers upon which patent
was issued; and such papers so authenticated shall be received in
evidence in all courts of the United States and in the several State
courts of the States of the Union: Provided, That the Secretary of the
Interior shall make rules and regulations to secure the return of such
documents to the Bureau of Land Management, after use in evidence,
without cost to the United States.
(Apr. 19, 1904, ch. 1398, 33 Stat. 186; 1946 Reorg. Plan No. 3,
Sec. 403, eff. July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7876, 60 Stat. 1100.)
Transfer of Functions
For transfer of functions of other officers, employees, and agencies
of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of
the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950,
Secs. 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out
under section 1451 of this title.
References to Commissioner of General Land Office and registers of
United States Land Offices changed to Secretary of the Interior or such
officer as he may designate and ``Bureau of Land Management''
substituted for ``General Land Office'' on authority of section 403 of
Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946. See note set out under section 1 of this
title.
