United States Tenth Circuit

The district court's judgment affirming the Interior Board of Land Appeals decision invalidating plaintiff's thirty-two unpatented oil shale mining claims is affirmed where claims were null and void because plaintiffs had failed to substantially perform the assessment work required by 30 U.S.C. section 28.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/15/2003
• Published 10/15/2003

Judges

• STEPHEN H. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge., Before TACHA, Chief Judge, and ANDERSON and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James A. Clark, Baker & Hostetler, LLP, Denver, CO, for Plaintiff-Appellant Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Donald L. Morgan, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff-Appellant TOSCO Corporation.


• For Appellees:
  
• Ellen J. Durkee, Attorney, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC (Thomas L. Sansonetti, Assistant Attorney General, Washington, DC;  Katherine Hazard, Attorney, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC;  Lyle Rising, Office of the Solicitor, Lakewood, CO;  and Karen Hawbecker, Office of the Solicitor, Washington, DC, with her on the briefs), for Defendants-Appellees.