§ 329. — Issue of patent on final proof; citizenship requirement as to patentee; limit as to amount of holding.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 43USC329]
TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS
CHAPTER 9--DESERT-LAND ENTRIES
Sec. 329. Issue of patent on final proof; citizenship
requirement as to patentee; limit as to amount of holding
At any time after filing the declaration, and within the period of
four years thereafter, upon making satisfactory proof to the officer
designated by the Secretary of the Interior of the reclamation and
cultivation of said land to the extent and cost and in the manner
aforesaid, and substantially in accordance with the plans herein
provided for, and that he or she is a citizen of the United States, and
upon payment to such officer of the additional sum of $1 per acre for
said land, a patent shall issue therefor to the applicant or his
assigns; but no person or association of persons shall hold by
assignment or otherwise prior to the issue of patent, more than three
hundred and twenty acres of such arid or desert lands, but this section
shall not apply to entries made or initiated prior to March 3, 1891:
Provided, however, That additional proofs may be required at any time
within the period prescribed by law, and that the claims or entries made
under sections 321 to 323, 325, and 327 to 329 of this title shall be
subject to contest, as provided by the law, relating to homestead cases,
for illegal inception, abandonment, or failure to comply with the
requirements of law, and upon satisfactory proof thereof shall be
canceled, and the lands, and moneys paid therefor, shall be forfeited to
the United States.
(Mar. 3, 1877, ch. 107, Sec. 7, as added Mar. 3, 1891, ch. 561, Sec. 2,
26 Stat. 1097; amended Oct. 28, 1921, ch. 114, Sec. 1, 42 Stat. 208;
Mar. 3, 1925, ch. 462, 43 Stat. 1145; 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.
``Officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior'' substituted
for ``register'' on authority of section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of
1946, which abolished all registers of district land offices and
transferred functions of register of district land offices to Secretary
of the Interior. See section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3, 1946, set out as
a note under section 1 of this title.
Previously, references to register and receiver changed to register
by acts Mar. 3, 1925 and Oct. 28, 1921, which consolidated offices of
register and receiver and provided for a single officer to be known as
register.
Five-Year Period
The period of four years prescribed by this section was extended to
five years as to pending entries where the time for final proof had not
expired prior to Jan. 1, 1894, by act Aug. 4, 1894, ch. 208, 28 Stat.
226.
Section as Unaffected by Submerged Lands Act
Provisions of this section as not amended, modified or repealed by
the Submerged Lands Act, see section 1303 of this title.
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in sections 321, 322, 323, 324, 326,
328, 333, 641, 1303 of this title; title 16 section 460iii-2.
