Ashley v. Andrus

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge.

The Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior appeals the district court’s reversal of the Secretary’s retroactive disqualification of an oil and gas lease secured in the Interior’s lottery by Eleanor Ashley, as personal representative of the Estate of Charles D. Ashley. Mr. Ashley died February 8, 1978. Mrs. Ashley, acting as the personal representative of the estate, subsequently signed a modification to a service agreement previously executed between Mr. Ashley and an oil and gas lottery service. The service, on April 21, 1978, properly…