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Title 43 — Public Lands

Chapter 12 — Reclamation and Irrigation of Lands by Federal Government

§ 478. Pecuniary penalty for nonpayment of installments of construction charges

Statutory text

If any water-right applicant or entryman shall have, prior to , failed to pay any installment of his construction charges when due, there shall be added to the amount unpaid a penalty of 1 per centum thereof, and there shall be added a like penalty of 1 per centum of the amount unpaid on the first day of each month thereafter so long as such default shall have continued: Provided, That the penalty of 1 per centum per month against delinquent accounts, is reduced to one-half of 1 per centum per month, as to all installments which may become due after .

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. Pub. L. 63–247 § 3 · 38 Stat. 686

    Enacted · 43 U.S.C. § 478

    Aug. 13, 1914, ch. 247, § 3, 38 Stat. 687

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    Aug. 13, 1914, ch. 247, § 3, 38 Stat. 687

    Enacted provision · exact public law section
    Sec. 3. penalties. That if any water-right applicant or entryman shall fail to Penalties for nonpayment of construction charges. pay any installment of his construction charges when due, there shall added to the amount unpaid a penalty of one per centum thereof, Vol. 37, p. 266, amended. and there shall be added a like penalty of one per centum of the amount unpaid on the first day of each month thereafter so long as such default shall continue. If any such applicant or entryman shall Cancellation and forfeiture. be one year in default in the payment of any installment of the construction charges and penalties, or any part thereof, his water-right application, and if he be a homestead entryman his entry also, shall be subject to cancellation, and all payments made by him forfeited to the reclamation fund, but no homestead entry shall be subject to contest because of such default: Provided, That if the Secretary of Proviso. Actions for recovery. the Interior shall so elect, he may cause suit or action to be brought for the recovery of the amount in default and penalties; but if suit or action be brought, the right to declare a cancellation and forfeiture shall be suspended pending such suit or action.

1 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision

Editorial Notes

Codification

Section consolidates first sentence of act , § 3, with act , § 4, subsec. H.

Credits

1914–1924 · 2 acts
  1. 1914Aug. 13, 1914, ch. 247, § 3, 38 Stat. 687
  2. 1924Dec. 5, 1924, ch. 4, § 4, subsec. H, 43 Stat. 703.
Show as published

(Aug. 13, 1914, ch. 247, § 3, 38 Stat. 687; Dec. 5, 1924, ch. 4, § 4, subsec. H, 43 Stat. 703.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc43.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-04-17

USLM identifier /us/usc/t43/s478