100 LAWS APPLICABLE TO THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



maining timber to others and receives from them the full price fixed 

 in the original contract, then it could not collect such price from the 

 original contractors. (2 Sol. Op., 758.) 



Upon certificate of the proper forest officer that no damage has 

 been sustained by the Government through the abandonment of a 

 timber sale contract, a refund may be made to the purchaser of any 

 amounts paid by him and remaining in the hands of the Govern- 

 ment, over and above what is due for timber actually taken and for 

 such expenses as the Government may have incurred. (Solicitor to 

 his assistant at Albuquerque, Oct. 3, 1912.) 



The decision in 28 Op. Atty. Gen., 12, is limited to the case actu- 

 ally presented and decided, namely, that an executive officer may 

 refrain from enforcing a contract when some action of. the Govern- 

 ment, in its sovereign capacity, has made it inequitable to do so, 

 although the waiver may be prejudicial to its pecuniary interests. 

 That decision can not be applied where the only ground for releas- 

 ing the contractor is that the contract has become less profitable than 

 he expected. (Letter of Attorney General to Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, dated June 10, 1911.) 



It is illegal to include in a timber sale contract a clause providing 

 for a reduction in stumpage price in consideration of the purchaser's 

 reforesting portions of the sale area (Solicitor's letter of Nov. 20, 

 1911, to the Forester), or constructing fire lines (1 Sol. Op., 437). 



Timber which has been cut by the purchaser and not removed 

 before the date fixed in clause 12 of timber sale Form 202 nevertheless 

 belongs to the purchaser when he has paid the double stumpage price 

 provided for by clause 14. He may, therefore, remove it from the 

 forest after the date fixed in clause 12, but must do so in a reasonable 

 time and under the supervision and direction of the forest officers 

 supervising the sale. (2 Sol. Op., 836.) 



Secretary of Agriculture may sell insect-infested timber, which is 

 a menace to the National Forest, from an unperfected mining claim 

 thereon, even without the consent of the claimant. (Lewis et al. v. 

 Garlock, United States intervenor, 168 Fed., 153.) 



In view of the exigency created by the great forest fires of the 

 summer and fall of 1910, and of the facts presented showing the 

 rapid deterioration of fire-killed timber in the northern and north- 

 western States, the Secretary of Agriculture may permit the claim- 

 ants to sell such timber from homestead and other claims and from 

 unsurveyed or unclassified railroad sections, taking a bond, with 

 adequate security, from the purchaser to protect the interest of the 

 United States, as the same may ultimately appear. (Letter of the 

 Attorney General to the Secretary of Agriculture dated Nov. 23, 

 1911.) 



It is understood that the foregoing opinion is limited to the situ- 

 ation created by the great fires of 1910, and is not to be applied 

 generally, even to fire-killed timber, especially in regions where such 

 timber does not rapidly deteriorate. (Solicitor to his assistant at 

 San Francisco, Jan. 22, 1912.) 



Note. — Prior to the receipt of the above-mentioned letter of the Attorney 

 General, the Solicitor had rendered the decisions digested in the four para- 

 graphs next following, which are still applicable, except as above stated. 



