28 U.S.C. § 2409
Section 2409 · Partition actions involving United States
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 53 court decisions — leading case Martinez v. United States (2003)
Most recently applied in Municipio de Río Grande y otro v. Adquisición de Finca 27.661 de la Urbanización Industrial Las Flores, del Término Municipal de Río Grande y otros (April 2025)
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.
Any civil action by any tenant in common or joint tenant owning an undivided interest in lands, where the United States is one of such tenants in common or joint tenants, against the United States alone or against the United States and any other of such owners, shall proceed, and be determined, in the same manner as would a similar action between private persons.
Whenever in such action the court orders a sale of the property or any part thereof the Attorney General may bid for the same in behalf of the United States. If the United States is the purchaser, the amount of the purchase money shall be paid from the Treasury upon a warrant drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury on the requisition of the Attorney General.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §766 (May 17, 1898, ch. 339, §§1, 2, 30 Stat. 416).
Provisions relating to service or commencement of the action and duty of United States attorneys to appear, defend, and file answer were omitted as surplusage and covered by Rules 2, 3, and 4 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and section 507 of this title.
Words “shall proceed, and be determined, in the same manner as would a similar action between private persons” were substituted for “shall proceed as other cases for partition by courts of equity, and in making such partition the court shall be governed by the same principles of equity that control courts of equity, in partition proceedings between private persons,” in view of Rule 2 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Changes were made in phraseology.