State ex rel. Morris v. Savidge
State ex rel. Morris v. Savidge
Opinion of the Court
Petitioner alleges that he has made application, paid the fees fixed by law, and is entitled to a prospecting lease covering a certain eighty-acre tract of land belonging to the state, and that the respondent refuses to issue to him such lease without inserting therein a provision or reservation to the effect that “the state of Washington reserves . . .
The land commissioner is without discretion in a matter of this kind. State ex rel. Pindall v. Ross, 55 Wash. 242, 104 Pac. 216; State ex rel. Hall v. Savidge, 93 Wash. 676, 161 Pac. 471. It therefore seems self-evident that petitioner is entitled to a lease which in its terms grants to him all of the rights which the statute gives him in such cases and without any limitations except those which the statute imposes. The statute clearly authorizes the reservation as to the rights of way; § 1, ch. 109, p. 506, Laws of 1911 (Rem. Code, § 6831-1), but we find nothing in the act or the amendments thereto which forms any basis for the reservation of timber and other materials except minerals. Section 6782, Rem. Code, as amended by ch. 148, Laws of 1917, p. 599, authorizes the issuance of leases and contracts for the mining of precious metals. Section 6783, as amended, provides for the application by any citizen for a prospecting lease to cover not to exceed eighty acres according to the legal subdivisions. Section 6784 provides for the manner of locating such mineral claims. Section 6785, the substance of which is included in the lease offered by respondent, provides
We find nothing in the act or elsewhere reserving or requiring the lease to contain any words of reservation as to timber, and as a consequence must hold that the commissioner of public lands is without authority to insert the reservation complained of. It follows, therefore, that the writ will issue directing the commissioner of public lands to issue and deliver the lease without the reservation quoted, or any reservation as to timber on the land involved.
Holcomb, C. J., Mount, Mitchell, and Fullerton, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The State of Washington, on the Relation of C. L. Morris v. C. V. Savidge, as Commissioner of Public Lands
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Mines and Minerals (1-A)—Lease of Mineral Lands—Reservations. The lessee of state mineral lands is entitled to a lease with all the rights granted by Rem. Code, §§ 6782-6787, as amended by Laws 1917, p. 599; hence the commissioner of public lands is without discretion to reserve to the state the timber and other materials except those granted by the lease.