McLaren v. Fleischer

Background

A man named Rider originally made a homestead claim to a public quarter-section of land. While that entry stood, the land was placed in a first-form reclamation withdrawal that temporarily prevented new claims. During the withdrawal, Fleischer brought a contest, proved Rider’s entry invalid, and the entry was canceled. The land register notified Fleischer on February 11, 1909, that he would be allowed thirty days to enter the land after it was restored to public entry. The Secretary later restored the land to settlement on April 18, 1910, and to public entry on May 18. On those dates McLaren settled and later applied to enter the land; Fleischer also applied under his claimed thirty-day preference. The land office allowed Fleischer, denied McLaren, and that decision was sustained by state courts; McLaren sued in state court and lost, and the case reached this Court on review.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether the statutory “thirty days from date of such notice” runs from the date of the notice even if the land remains withdrawn and not open to entry during those thirty days. The Court accepted the long-established practice of the Interior Department and land officers that the thirty days are to be counted when the land is actually open for entry, effectively excluding the time the land remained under withdrawal. The Court found that this practical construction was reasonable, had been consistently followed, and that it should be respected. Earlier cases cited against that view did not control the present question.

Real world impact

The decision affirms that a successful contestant like Fleischer has thirty days after the land is restored to public entry to make a homestead entry. That stabilizes many titles based on the same administrative practice and makes it harder for later settlers to displace contest winners when lands are released from withdrawal.