Contract for Surveys
3–14 43 C.F.R. 3861.4–1 Payment: (a) The claimant is required in all cases to make satisfactory arrangements with the surveyor for the payment for his services and those of his assistants in making the survey, as the United States will not be held responsible for the same. (b) The State Director has no jurisdiction to settle differences relative to the payment of charges for field work between mineral surveyors and claimants. These are matters of private contract and must be enforced in the ordinary manner, i.e., in the local courts. The Department has, however, authority to investigate charges affecting the official actions of mineral surveyors, and will, on sufficient cause shown, suspend or revoke their appointment. (See 3–1 above.)
3–15 30 U.S.C. 39 states in part: “The Director of the Bureau of Land Management shall also have the power to establish the maximum charges for surveys ...; and to the end that the Director may be fully informed on the subject, each applicant (for patent) shall file with the Manager (of the land office) a sworn statement of all charges and fees paid by such applicant for ... surveys....”
3–16 Many factors enter into the ultimate cost of a mineral survey, such as the terrain, distance from centers of population, condition of the public land survey, number of conflicts with prior surveys and patents, the age of conflicting surveys, variable weather conditions, and inflation.
Cost should be a secondary consideration in selecting a mineral surveyor and the remuneration should be such as to assure an adequate job. Many of the early day surveys of the public lands resulted in poor or even fraudulent work because of the low contract price.
If a mineral surveyor has had considerable experience in an area, he may agree to a fixed price per claim, plus a fixed price per conflict and per mile of retracement of section lines with subdivision of sections as required. An alternative to this is a daily or hourly fee for each principal or party chief and assistants, plus expenses at cost, which assures the Bureau of Land Management and the claimant that quality will not be sacrificed because of cost. In the latter case, the mineral surveyor should provide the claimant with an estimate so that he will be prepared to meet his invoices. Either type of contract should provide for periodic payments, and the mineral surveyor is justified in requesting an advance deposit. In any event, payment for the mineral survey is a matter of private contract; the foregoing are merely suggestions.
3–17 Inasmuch as mineral surveyors may not hold an interest in the public domain (see Sec. 3–18 below), they are prohibited from accepting an interest in the claims as payment for his services.