2021 New Mexico Statutes
Article 7 - Sale and Lease of Lands
Section 19-7-2 - Formal requirements for applications; state officers and employees prohibited from acting as, or procuring, agents or attorneys.

All applications for the purchase of state lands and all applications for leases, whether for grazing, oil and gas, mining or other purposes, shall be made with ink or with typewriter using a record ribbon, upon forms to be prescribed by the commissioner of public lands. All applications shall be signed by original applicant or his agent or attorneys authorized by written power of attorney, shall be acknowledged before an officer authorized to administer oaths and shall be accompanied by application fees for oil and gas, mining, business leases, grazing leases and other purposes, as appropriate, in amounts set by the commissioner of public lands by regulation. The fees shall be deposited in the state lands maintenance fund. No state officer or employee of the state land office shall act as agent or attorney or procure another to act as agent or attorney for any application, but this act [19-1-23, 19-7-2 to 19-7-6 NMSA 1978] shall not be construed so as to prevent the commissioner of public lands or any employee of the state land office from assisting applicants to make out their applications without pay.
History: Laws 1921, ch. 174, § 1; C.S. 1929, § 111-301; 1941 Comp., § 8-802; Laws 1947, ch. 95, § 1; 1953 Comp., § 7-8-2; Laws 1971, ch. 95, § 1.
Cross references. — For establishment of state lands maintenance fund, see 19-1-11 NMSA 1978.
Leaseholds compensable in condemnation proceedings. — In a condemnation suit brought by the United States against state grazing lease, for a five-year term as provided in the New Mexico Enabling Act, and issued under the statutory authority of this section with a preference right for renewal under Section 19-7-49 NMSA 1978, which for all practical purposes was an absolute right as against other applicants, the trial court stated that compensation is to be based on a valuation formula which includes both the state-owned lands leased by the defendants as well as the fee lands of the defendants as one ownership unit, that defendants who have grazing leases of state-owned tracts have compensable interests therein and are to receive, upon distribution of the proceedings, the condemnation award for the state lands they have leased and finally, that the leases of the state-owned tracts executed or renewed by the state after July 1, 1970, created in the lessee a property compensable in these proceedings. United States v. 41,098.98 Acres of Land, 548 F.2d 911 (10th Cir. 1977).

Structure 2021 New Mexico Statutes