43 U.S.C. § 872
Section 872 · Conveyances to United States in connection with applications for amendment of patented entries or for exchange of land, etc.; withdrawal or rejection of applications; reconveyances
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case 3 Cal. App. 3d 279 - Newman v. Cornelius (1970)
Most recently applied in 670 F. Supp. 879 - Soda Flat Co. v. Hodel (August 1987)
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.
Where a conveyance of land has been made or may hereafter be made to the United States in connection with an application for amendment of a patented entry or entries, or an exchange of lands, or for any other purpose, and the application in connection with which the conveyance was made is thereafter withdrawn or rejected, the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate is authorized and directed, if the deed of conveyance has been recorded, to execute a quitclaim deed of the conveyed land to the party or parties entitled thereto.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Transfer of Functions
Functions of Secretary of the Interior under this section, with respect to execution of quitclaim deeds for lands conveyed to United States in connection with exchange transactions involving lands under jurisdiction of Secretary of Agriculture, transferred to Secretary of Agriculture, see Pub. L. 86–509, June 11, 1960, 74 Stat. 205, set out as a note under section 2201 of Title 7, Agriculture.
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, §§1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out under section 1451 of this title.
“Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate” substituted for “Commissioner of the 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.