16 U.S.C. § 518
Section 518 · Acquisition of lands not defeated by rights-of-way, easements, and reservations
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Stark v. Commissioner (1986)
Most recently applied in 894 F. Supp. 2d 642 - Minard Run Oil Co. v. United States Forest Service (September 2012)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Such acquisition by the United States shall in no case be defeated because of located or defined rights of way, easements, and reservations, which, from their nature will, in the opinion of the Secretary of Agriculture, in no manner interfere with the use of the lands so encumbered, for the purposes of this Act. Such rights of way, easements, and reservations retained by the owner from whom the United States receives title, shall be subject to the rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture for their occupation, use, operation, protection, and administration, and such rules and regulations shall be expressed in and made part of the written instrument conveying title to the lands to the United States; and the use, occupation, and operation of such rights of way, easements, and reservations shall be under, subject to, and in obedience with the rules and regulations so expressed.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
This Act, referred to in text, means act Mar. 1, 1911, ch. 186, 36 Stat. 961, as amended, popularly known as the Weeks Law, which is classified to sections 480, 500, 513 to 519, 521, 552, and 563 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 552 of this title and Tables.
Amendments
1976—Pub. L. 94–588 struck out “the National Forest Reservation Commission and” after “in the opinion of”.
1913—Act Mar. 4, 1913, amended act Mar. 1, 1911, generally to provide that acquisition of lands under this section would not be defeated by rights of way, easements, and reservations retained by the owner from whom title is received.