1. The Act of February 8, 1918, c. 12, 40 Stat. 433, was enacted
for the chief purpose of selling, after appraisal, the coal and
asphalt deposits in segregated mineral land of the Choctaws and
Chickasaws, subject to existing leases, and not for the appraisal
and disposition of the surface, this having been provided for by
the Act of February 19, 1912, c. 46, 37 Stat. 67. P.
262 U. S.
206.
2. Section 4 of the Act of February 8, 1918,
supra, in
providing that any lessee shall have the preferential right, upon
certain conditions, to purchase "at the appraised value" any and
all of the surface lying within his lease and heretofore reserved
by order of the Secretary of the Interior, does not contemplate a
new appraisement of the surface, but refers to the value as
previously ascertained by appraisement under the Act of February
19, 1912,
supra. P.
262 U. S.
207.
3. The lessee's right in such case is given by the Act of 1918
without qualification, and is not left to the legal discretion of
the Secretary of the Interior in the construction of the act. P.
262 U. S.
208.
Page 262 U. S. 201
4. Therefore, a lessee having this preferential right and having
elected to purchase and made due and timely tender of the value, as
appraised under the Act of 1912, has a right to a mandamus against
the Secretary of the Interior, the Governor of the Chickasaw
Nation, and the Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation, to compel
acceptance of the tender and issuance of an appropriate patent, as
directed by § 7 of the Act of 1918. P.
262 U. S.
208.
51 App.D.C. 171, 277 F. 573, affirmed.
The relator, the McAlester-Edwards Coal Company, filed a
petition in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia asking
for a writ of mandamus to require the Secretary of the Interior and
the Governor of the Chickasaw Nation and the Principal Chief of the
Choctaw Nation to accept $10,360.06, the balance of the purchase
price of $12,651.82 ($2,291.76 having already been tendered and
accepted) tendered by the Coal Company in payment for certain
surface lands to which under the Act of Congress of February 8,
1918, c. 12, § 4, 40 Stat. 433, it claimed a preferential
right of purchase, and to require the Governor of the Chickasaw
Nation and the Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation to issue a
patent to the Coal Company for the same and the Secretary of the
Interior to approve it.
The answer of the defendants below admitted all the material
facts alleged in the petition, but denied the right of the coal
company to the mandamus on the ground that the construction put
upon the Act of 1918 by the Secretary of the Interior, in the
exercise of the discretion vested in him by the statute, did not
give to the relator, the coal company, the preferential right
asserted. The Supreme Court of the District overruled a demurrer to
the answer, and, the relator not pleading further, the petition was
dismissed. On review in the court of appeals, the judgment of the
District Supreme Court was reversed on the ground that the demurrer
should have been sustained and the writ asked for should have
issued. The cause was remanded to have the writ issue.
Page 262 U. S. 202
The coal company is owner by assignment of a lease approved by
the Secretary of the Interior of coal lands in Pittsburg County,
Oklahoma, belonging to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, executed
in July, 1899, and running for 30 years. This lease permitted the
lessee to use the surface of the land covered by the lease for the
purpose of developing its coal mine. The Act of February 19, 1912,
c. 46, 37 Stat. 67, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to
sell the surface leased and unleased of the segregated mineral land
of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, reserved under previous laws, to
include the entire estate of the Indians therein except the coal
and asphalt reserved. The Secretary was required in the first
section, quoted in the margin, [
Footnote 1] to classify and have appraised the
Page 262 U. S. 203
surface so to be sold. The second section, also quoted in the
margin, [
Footnote 2] gave a
preferential right for 60 days to any coal or asphalt lessee to
purchase at the appraised value, the surface of the land covered by
his mining lease, not exceeding five percent of the whole surface,
which the Secretary might extend to ten percent, upon waiver of
right by the lessee to use any more of the surface, but
Page 262 U. S. 204
allowed the Secretary in case of a lessee's failing to purchase
to reserve to him as much of the surface as the Secretary might
deem proper for his mining used and development.
Pursuant to this act, the Secretary classified and appraised the
surface of the land which included that covered by the lease of the
coal company. The coal company, however, did not avail itself of
the right to purchase, but, under the authority of the latter part
of the section, accepted a reservation by the Secretary of a
certain part of the surface for its mining operations.
The purpose of the Act of February 8, 1918, 40 Stat. 433,
already referred to, is shown by its title "An act providing for
the sale of the coal and asphalt deposits in the segregated mineral
land in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, Oklahoma." Before
offering the coal and asphalt deposits for sale, the Secretary was
to cause them to be appraised under such regulations as he should
prescribe. All deposits sold were to be subject to the rights of
existing lessees, and § 4 contained a provision that any
lessee of mining rights should have the preferential right to buy
them at the highest price offered for them at public auction -- at
not less than the appraisement -- and that, after the appraisement
of the mining rights and within 90 days thereof, such lessee should
have the preferential right to buy the surface rights reserved to
him by the Secretary as such lessee "at the appraised value."
The relator bought the mining rights and then, within due time,
undertook to exercise its preferential right to buy the surface
rights reserved to it by the Secretary under the Act of 1912, and
made a payment on account of $2,291.76, on the basis of the
appraisement under the Act of 1912, which was accepted by the
Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes and approved by the
Secretary of the Interior, and retained for fourteen months. When
this became known to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations,
Page 262 U. S. 205
their representatives protested, and insisted that there must be
a new appraisement under the Act of 1918. There was a hearing
before the Secretary, who reversed his first ruling and held that
the relator was entitled to purchase such surface lands only under
an appraisement made subsequently to the Act of 1918, and that the
money paid under the appraisement of 1912 should be returned to the
relator. An appraisement was then ordered by the Secretary under
regulations issued by him at which the relator had sought to
exercise a preferential right was fixed at $20,482.60, instead of
$9,050.53, which had been the appraisement under the Act of
1912.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TAFT, after stating the case as above,
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Two questions are to be decided in this case. The first is under
what appraisement the preferential right conferred on the relator
by the fourth section of the Act of 1918 to purchase the surface
previously reserved to it by the Secretary of the Interior was to
be exercised. Should it have been under that of the Act of 1912, or
under that ordered by the Secretary after the Act of 1918? The
second question is whether the construction necessary to determine
the first question is vested by the statute in
Page 262 U. S. 206
the legal discretion of the Secretary, which it is not within
the power of the Supreme Court of the District by mandamus to
control.
First. We have no doubt that the appraisement referred to in the
fourth section of the Act of 1918 under which the preferential
right was to be exercised was that provided for in the Act of 1912.
It will be observed that the Act of 1912 provided for the sale of
the surface lands covering the coal and asphalt deposits of the
Choctaws and Chickasaws, and elaborate provisions were made for the
appraisement of them. A board of appraisers was to be appointed by
the President of the United States, regulations were to be made by
the Secretary for the appraisement, and minute requirements were
set forth in the first section as to the different classes of such
surface lands. More than that, six months' time was allowed for it,
and $50,000 was appropriated out of the treasury of the nation to
complete the appraisement and sale. By the second section, it was
attempted to protect the lessees of the minerals in retaining
enough surface land to enjoy their leases by giving them short time
options to purchase certain percentages of the whole surface, and,
if they did not purchase, by an agreed reservation without purchase
of what the Secretary might deem necessary. The object of this
legislation was the appraisement, offering, sale, and disposition
of the surface of the mineral land. The Act of 1918 was enacted not
to sell the surface. That had been all disposed of except these
agreed reservations by the Secretary specifically provided for in
the Act of 1912. The later act was to sell outright the coal and
asphalt deposits, much of which had been leased until 1929, subject
to such leases. That was its chief purpose. Everything else was
incidental. As part of this chief purpose, it provided elaborately
for an appraisement of the mineral deposits, just as the Act of
1912 had provided for the appraisement of the surface
Page 262 U. S. 207
land. There is nothing in the Act of 1918 as to the appraisal of
the reserved surface land except in the words italicized in the
following paragraph, taken from Section 4:
"Any lessee shall have the preferential right, provided the same
is exercised within ninety days after the approval of the
completion of the appraisement of the minerals, as herein provided,
to purchase at
the appraised value any or all of the
surface of the lands lying within such lease held by him and
heretofore reserved by order of the Secretary of the Interior."
This paragraph is in the middle of § 4, a section devoted
to saving the rights of the lessees of the coal and asphalt
deposits from impairment by the sale of such deposits contemplated
by the act. It was entirely natural, as such reservation of the
surface had been made to preserve the mining opportunities of the
lessees under the Act of 1912, that, now that it was hoped that the
lessees would buy the leased deposits outright under the act, as we
may judge from the provision giving them preferential rights to do
so contained in the same section, provision should also be made to
secure them permanent ownership of that which the Secretary had
deemed necessary for their mining under the leases. These
privileges extended to the lessees show clearly that this act is
in pari materia with all the previous legislation
concerning these mineral lands, both as to surface and deposits,
and especially with the Act of 1912 as to the surface. This is
confirmed by the proviso in § 4 that:
"nothing herein contained shall be construed as limiting or
curtailing the rights of any lessee or owner of mineral deposits
from acquiring additional surface lands for mining operations as
provided by the Act of Congress of February 19, 1912."
There is nothing in the Act of 1918 expressly or impliedly
authorizing the Secretary to order a reappraisement
Page 262 U. S. 208
of the surface land. There is no appropriation for the
purpose.
If, by the words quoted from § 4 of the act, it was
intended to authorize a new appraisement of the surface
reservations, the language would not have been "the" appraisement,
but "an" appraisement. The use of the definite article means an
appraisement specifically provided for. Such an appraisement of the
minerals was provided for in the Act of 1918 and this is mentioned
in the same sentence in which "the appraisement" of the surface
land is referred to. Construing the Acts of 1912 and 1918 together,
the appraisement can only refer to that so elaborately provided for
in 1912.
Second. We think that the preferential right of relator
conferred by § 4 of the Act of 1918 was not to be left to the
legal discretion of the Secretary in the construction of that act.
There are no words to qualify that which the lessee has as a right
granted by the statute, or to vest in the Secretary the final
discretion to determine or define that right.
Section 7 of the Act of 1918 provides that, when the full
purchase price for any property sold hereunder is paid, the chief
executives of the two tribes shall execute and deliver, with the
approval of the secretary of the Interior, to each purchaser an
appropriate patent conveying to the purchaser the property so sold.
This is language of command, and brings the case within
Lane v.
Hoglund, 244 U. S. 174, and
the many cases cited there, and in which the court quotes from its
opinion in
Roberts v. United States, 176 U.
S. 221,
176 U. S. 231,
as follows:
"Every statute to some extent requires construction by the
public officer whose duties may be defined therein. Such officer
must read the law, and he must therefore, in a certain sense,
construe it, in order to form a judgment from its language what
duty he is directed by the statute to perform. But that does not
necessarily and in all cases
Page 262 U. S. 209
make the duty of the officer . . . other than a purely
ministerial one. If the law direct him to perform and act in regard
to which no discretion is committed to him, and which, upon the
facts existing, he is bound to perform, then that act is
ministerial, although depending upon a statute which requires, in
some degree, a construction of its language by the officer."
See also Work v. United States ex rel. Mosier,
261 U. S. 352.
The decree of the court of appeals of the District of Columbia
is
Affirmed.
[
Footnote 1]
"That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to sell
at not less than the appraised price, to be fixed as hereinafter
provided, the surface, leased and unleased, of the lands of the
Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in Oklahoma segregated and reserved
by order of the Secretary of the Interior dated March
twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and three, authorized by the act
approved July first, nineteen hundred and two. The surface herein
referred to shall include the entire estate save the coal and
asphalt reserved. Before offering such surface for sale, the
Secretary of the Interior, under such regulations as he may
prescribe, shall cause the same to be classified and appraised by
three appraisers, to be appointed by the President at a
compensation to be fixed him, not to exceed for salary and expenses
for each appraiser the sum of fifteen dollars per day for the time
actually engaged in making such classification and appraisement.
The classification and appraisement of the surface shall be by
tracts, according to the government survey of said lands, except
that lands which are especially valuable by reason of proximity to
towns or cities may, in the discretion of the Secretary of the
Interior, be subdivided into lots or tracts containing not less
than one acre. In appraising said surface, the value of any
improvements thereon belonging to the Choctaw and Chickasaw
Nations, except such improvements as have been placed on coal or
asphalt lands leased for mining purposes, shall be taken into
consideration. The surface shall be classified as agricultural,
grazing, or as suitable for town lots. The classification and
appraisement provided for herein shall be completed within six
months from the date of the passage of this act, shall be sworn to
by the appraisers, and shall become effective when approved by the
Secretary of the Interior:
Provided, that, in the
proceedings and deliberation of said appraisers in the process of
said appraisement and in the approval thereof, the Choctaw and
Chickasaw Nations may present for consideration facts, figures, and
arguments bearing upon the value of said property."
[
Footnote 2]
"Sec. 2. That, after such classification and appraisement has
been made, each holder of a coal or asphalt lease shall have a
right for sixty days, after notice in writing, to purchase at the
appraised value and upon the terms and conditions hereinafter
prescribed, a sufficient amount of the surface of the land covered
by his lease to embrace improvements actually used in present
mining operations or necessary for future operations up to five
percentum of such surface, the number, location, and extent of the
tracts to be thus purchased to be approved by the Secretary of the
Interior:
Provided, that the Secretary of the Interior
may, in his discretion, enlarge the amount of land to be purchased
by any such lessee to not more than ten percentum of such surface:
Provided further, that such purchase shall be taken and
held as a waiver by the purchaser of any and all rights to
appropriate to his use any other part of the surface of such land,
except for the purpose of future operations, prospecting, and for
ingress and egress, as hereinafter reserved:
Provided
further, that, if any lessee shall fail to apply to purchase
under the provisions of this section within the time specified, the
Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, with the consent
of the lessee, designate and reserve from sale such tract or tracts
as he may deem proper and necessary to embrace improvements
actually used in present mining operations, or necessary for future
operations, under any existing lease, and dispose of the remaining
portion of the surface within such lease free and clear of any
claim by the lessee, except for the purposes of future operations,
prospecting, and for ingress and egress, as hereinafter
reserved."
