[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 43, Volume 2]
[Revised as of October 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 43CFR2521.3]

[Page 113-114]
 
                    TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS: INTERIOR
 
    CHAPTER II--BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
 
PART 2520_DESERT-LAND ENTRIES--Table of Contents
 
                         Subpart 2521_Procedures
 
Sec. 2521.3  Assignment.

    (a) Lands which may be assigned. While by the Act of March 3, 1891 
(26 Stat. 1096; 43 U.S.C. 329), assignments of desert-land entries were 
recognized, the Department of the Interior, largely for administrative 
reasons, held that a desert-land entry might be assigned as a whole or 
in its entirety, but refused to recognize the assignment of only a 
portion of an entry. The Act of March 28, 1908, however, provides for an 
assignment of such entries, in whole or in part, but this does not mean 
that less than a legal subdivision may be assigned. Therefore no 
assignment, otherwise than by legal subdivisions, will be recognized. 
The legal subdivisions assigned must be contiguous.
    (b) Qualifications of assignees. (1) The Act of March 28, 1908, also 
provides that no person may take a desert-land entry by assignment 
unless he is qualified to enter the tract so assigned to him. Therefore, 
if a person is not at least 21 years of age and, excepting Nevada, a 
resident citizen of the State wherein the land involved is located; or 
if he is not a ciitzen of the United States, or a person who has 
declared his intention to become a citizen thereof; or, if he has made a 
desert-land entry in his own right and is not entitled under Sec. 
2521.1 to make a second or an additional entry, he cannot take such an 
entry by assignment. The language of the act indicates that the taking 
of an entry by assignment is equivalent to the making of an entry, and 
this being so, no person is allowed to take more than one entry by 
assignment, unless it be done as the exercise of a right of second or 
additional entry.
    (2) A person who has the right to make a second or additional 
desert-land entry may exercise that right by taking an assignment of a 
desert-land entry, or part of such entry, if he is otherwise qualified 
to make a desert-land entry for the particular tract assigned.
    (3) The Act of March 28, 1908, also provides that no assignment to 
or for the benefit of any corporation shall be authorized or recognized.
    (c) Showing required of assignees; recognition of assignments. (1) 
As evidence of the assignment there should be transmitted to the 
authorizing officer

[[Page 114]]

the original deed of assignment or a certified copy thereof. Where the 
deed of assignment is recorded a certified copy may be made by the 
officer who has custody of the record. Where the original deed is 
presented to an officer qualified to take proof in desert-land cases, a 
copy certified by such officer will be accepted.
    (2) An assignee must file with his deed of assignment, a statement 
on a form approved by the Director, showing his qualifications to take 
the entry assigned to him. He must show what applications or entries, if 
any, have been made by him or what entries assigned to him under the 
agricultural public land laws, and he must also show his qualifications 
as a citizen of the United States; that he is 21 years of age or over; 
and also that he is a resident citizen of the State in which the land 
assigned to him is situated, except in the State of Nevada, where 
citizenship of the United States only is required. If the assignee is 
not a native-born citizen of the United States, he should also furnish a 
statement as to his citizenship status in accordance with subpart 1811 
of this chapter. If the assignee is a woman, she should in all cases 
state whether she is married, and if so, she must make the showing 
required by subpart 1811 of this chapter. Desert-land entries are 
initiated by the payment of 25 cents per acre, and no assignable right 
is acquired by the application prior to such payment. (6 L.D. 541, 33 
L.D. 152.) An assignment made on the day of such payment, or soon 
thereafter, is treated as suggesting fraud, and such cases will be 
carefully scrutinized. The provisions of law authorizing the assignment 
of desert entries, in whole or in part, furnish no authority to a 
claimant under said law to make an executory contract to convey the land 
after the issuance of patent and thereafter to proceed with the 
submission of final proof in furtherance of such contract. (34 L.D. 
383.) The sale of land embraced in an entry at any time before final 
payment is made must be regarded as an assignment of the entry, and in 
such cases the person buying the land must show that he possesses all 
the qualifications required of an assignee. (29 L.D. 453.) The assignor 
of a desert-land entry may execute the assignment before any officer 
authorized to take acknowledgements of deeds. The assignee must furnish 
a statement on a form approved by the Director as to his qualifications.
    (3) No assignments of desert-land entries or parts of entries are 
conclusive until examined in the proper office and found satisfactory 
and the assignment recognized. When recognized, however, the assignee 
takes the place of the assignor as effectively as though he had made the 
entry, and is subject to any requirement that may be made relative 
thereto. The assignment of a desert-land entry to one disqualified to 
acquire title under the desert-land law, and to whom, therefore, 
recognition of the assignment is refused by the authorizing officer, 
does not of itself render the entry fraudulent, but leaves the right 
thereto in the assignor. In such connection, however, see 42 L.D. 90 and 
48 L.D. 519.
    (4) All applications for recognition of assignment of desert-land 
entries must be accompanied by an application service fee of $10 which 
will not be returnable.