SECTIONS 7401-7424 - California Statutes

PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE

SECTION 7401-7424

7401. As used in this article, "permanent reservation" applies only
to a National reservation established by proclamation of the
President of the United States.
"Temporary reservation" applies to any withdrawal of public lands
from entry, for any purpose, and lands within the exterior boundaries
of any such withdrawal, where the withdrawal has not become a
permanent reservation by proclamation of the President of the United
States.

7402. All sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, both surveyed and
unsurveyed, which are now or hereafter included within the exterior
boundaries of a military, Indian, forest, or other National
reservation, or of a reserve, or of a National forest, National park,
or National monument, or within the exterior boundaries of lands
withdrawn from public entry, may be used as bases for indemnity
selections except as otherwise provided in this chapter.

7403. No person shall have the right to apply for or be entitled to
designate or have selected or located for him by the commission in
the United States land offices any lands in lieu of loss to the State
in or to any grant made to it by the United States except upon the
surrender of an indemnity certificate or scrip, as provided in this
article.

7404. All sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections situated within the
exterior boundaries of a permanent reservation, and also all losses
sustained by the State to its school grants, are valid bases for
indemnity selections, and shall be available as bases when indemnity
certificates or scrip have been issued therefor and sold. Where
indemnity selections are based upon surveyed school sections included
within the exterior boundaries of permanent reservations, if the
lands applied for are finally listed to the State in lieu of the
sections constituting such bases, the title of the State to such
bases shall vest in the United States without further act on the part
of the State, and the title of the State to such bases shall be
deemed to have been conveyed to the United States, as of the date of
the listing.

7405. Whenever the State has the right to select lands from the
United States, for any of the causes or reasons for which it may be
entitled to make indemnity selections, the commission shall ascertain
from time to time the number of acres of land to which the State is
entitled as indemnity and shall keep on file a statement showing of
what such bases consist.

7405.1. Whenever the commission determines it to the advantage of
the State so to do, it may pursuant to law select lands of the United
States equal in area to the number of acres to which the State is
entitled as indemnity, and the lands so acquired may be thereafter
sold in the manner and for cash as provided in Article 1 of this
chapter.

7406. The commission is the general agent of the State for the
location in the United States land offices of the lands desired to be
selected and located in lieu of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth
sections granted to the State for the use of the public schools, and
in lieu of any and all losses sustained by the State to its school
grant, whenever the commission is authorized by law to make such
location or locations, or whenever for any reason it is authorized to
select lands in lieu of grants made to the State; but no such
selection or reselection, designation or redesignation or amended
selection shall be made, except pursuant to Section 7303 or Section
7405.1 or upon the surrender to the commission, as in this article
provided, of a certificate of indemnity or scrip.

7407. No selection of any land for which a certificate of purchase
is outstanding shall be made until the certificate of purchase issued
therefor has been surrendered.

7408. The commission may accept the benefits of the act of Congress
approved July 17, 1914, entitled: "An act to provide for
agricultural entry of lands withdrawn, classified, or reported as
containing phosphate, nitrate, potash, oil, gas, or asphaltic
minerals," and on behalf of the State, or of any assignee of the
State, accept and receive lists and patents to lands selected by the
State as agricultural lands, which were subsequently withdrawn,
classified or reported as being valuable for phosphate, nitrate,
potash, oil, gas, or asphaltic minerals, and containing a reservation
to the United States of all deposits on account of which the lands
were withdrawn, classified, or reported as being valuable, together
with the right to prospect for, mine and remove the same, as provided
in said act of Congress.

7409. Whenever the State is entitled to make indemnity selections
for any reason, the commission may, on behalf of the State, issue and
sell indemnity certificates of location or scrip.

7410. No person may purchase an indemnity certificate of location
or scrip unless he is qualified to purchase state lands as provided
by law. As the commission from time to time ascertains the number of
acres to which the State is entitled as indemnity, it may sell at its
office in the City of Sacramento, for cash and to persons qualified
to purchase state land, indemnity certificates or scrip, at a price
fixed by the commission at not less than one dollar and twenty-five
cents ($1.25) an acre and in such quantities as the commission deems
are for the best interests of the State.

7411. No person shall purchase indemnity certificates or scrip for
or on behalf of any other person without an authorization in writing
so to do, executed by the principal, which authorization shall be
filed in the office of the commission, together with the affidavit of
the principal that he is qualified to purchase State lands.

7412. When certificates of indemnity or scrip are sold, the
commission shall issue to the purchaser an indemnity certificate of
location or scrip, in such form as may be provided by it, containing
the date of the sale, a description of the land or a statement of the
facts or other cause constituting the bases by reason of which the
State is entitled to indemnity, the name of the person to whom
issued, the price paid therefor, and the fact that such certificate
may be surrendered to the commission, and that the holder and owner
thereof, if he is the original purchaser of the certificate of
indemnity or scrip, shall be entitled to have selected from the
vacant unappropriated lands of the United States within the State
open to selection, the same number of acres as represented by the
certificate surrendered, which the person who makes the surrender
shall designate. If the lands applied for are not open to entry the
holder of a certificate of indemnity may apply for other lands or
receive restitution to the amount paid for the certificate.

7413. At the time of surrendering a certificate the person
surrendering it shall make and file the same affidavit and
application, as is required for the purchase of State school lands
and shall pay all fees as provided in connection with the sale of
State school lands, and the issuing of evidences of title therefor.
The certificates of indemnity or scrip shall be accepted as the full
purchase price of the land sought to be purchased by the applicant.

7414. A certificate of indemnity is not subject to sale or
assignment; but if the purchaser dies without having selected lands
in accordance therewith, his successors in interest or legal
representatives may surrender the certificate and be entitled to
restitution for the amount paid therefor.

7415. If it appears, when any certificate of indemnity or scrip is
surrendered that the owner of the certificate was not qualified to
purchase State lands when the certificate was purchased, the
certificate shall be canceled and become null and void, and he shall
be entitled to restitution therefor.

7416. If any applicant desires to purchase any of the lands
mentioned in Section 7406, he shall, before filing his application
with the commission, properly prepare all papers and documents on the
forms prescribed by the commission and the Department of the
Interior, and shall also surrender the indemnity certificate or scrip
which he desires the commission to use as bases for indemnity. If
the applicant complies with the provisions of this article and of
law, the commission, unless it first determines that the listing to
the State of the lands sought to be purchased by the applicant would
be contrary to the best interests of the State, shall thereupon
communicate with the United States Land Offices and ask that the
lands sought to be purchased be listed to the State in lieu of the
bases named in the surrender certificate. The applicant shall also
pay to the commission at the time of the presentation of the
application all fees required by the United States Land Offices for
the location, shall furnish all county recorders' or other
certificates required, and shall pay for publication of all notices
required by the United States Land Offices.
The county recorder, upon the request of any person or his agent
or attorney, shall forthwith, on the payment of the fees allowed by
law, furnish the certificate required by this section, or any other
certificate that may be required by the rules or regulations of the
United States Land Office.

7417. When the commission receives from the register or receiver of
the United States Land Office, or both, a notice to the effect that
any indemnity school land selection, has been filed and accepted,
subject to future approval, the said commission shall, subject to the
provisions of Section 7705, approve the application in accordance
with the acceptance, and shall issue a certificate of purchase for
the land sought by the applicant showing full payment therefor.

7418. All the provisions of the laws of this State governing the
sale and disposition of State school land, where not in conflict with
the provisions of this article, shall apply equally to lands
purchased upon the surrender of certificates of indemnity or scrip.

7419. No person shall be considered as having made an entry of
State lands under this article until the lands have been listed to
the State.

7420. All moneys received by the commission under this article
shall be disposed of in the same manner as other moneys received from
the sale of State school lands.

7421. Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the commission
that the base named in any certificate of indemnity or scrip is
invalid, or has been used in a previous State indemnity selection, or
will not be accepted by the Land Department of the United States,
the owner and holder thereof may surrender the certificate of
indemnity or scrip to the commission. The certificate of indemnity or
scrip shall thereupon be canceled, and the commission shall issue a
new certificate of indemnity or scrip in lieu thereof containing an
equal amount of acres of valid bases. If the base land described in
the canceled certificate of indemnity or scrip has been used in
making a State indemnity selection for the owner, the commission
shall forward to the United States Land Office an amendatory of the
State indemnity selection by substituting the base land described in
the new certificate of indemnity or scrip for the base land in the
certificate canceled by it.

7422. If a certificate of indemnity or scrip is lost or destroyed,
the owner, upon filing an affidavit with the commission showing the
facts constituting the loss or destruction, may have issued to him a
duplicate, across the face of which shall be marked in red ink the
word "Duplicate," which shall have the same force and effect as the
original.

7423. Whenever any person has the right to recover from the State,
or desires to receive from the State, any sum of money paid by him
for a certificate of indemnity or scrip, he shall surrender the
certificate or scrip to the commission, which shall thereupon cancel
it and issue to him a certificate showing the amount paid and the
class of land upon which the payment was made. Upon the surrender to
the Controller of the certificate showing the amount paid, he shall
draw his warrant in favor of the person surrendering it for the
amount therein specified upon the Treasurer of the State, who shall
pay the amount of the warrant out of the fund into which the purchase
money was paid.
In cases where certificates of purchase have been issued for the
land selected in lieu of the base described in the indemnity
certificate of location or scrip, the owner of the certificate of
purchase shall be governed by the provisions of Sections 7971, 7972,
and 7973.

7424. The commission may relinquish to the United States any
unlisted lieu land for which there is no pending application to
purchase from the State. The commission may relinquish any such land
upon the request of the holder of a certificate of purchase for the
land, upon the surrender of the certificate of purchase issued by the
State for the land, the conveyance to the State of his interest in
and to the land by a quitclaim deed, and the furnishing to the
commission of satisfactory evidence that whatever title was conveyed
by the State through the issuance of the certificate of purchase is
revested in the State.