Double J. Land & Cattle Co. v. United States Department of the Interior

LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

This case presents a novel issue. Appellants, who openly concede that they are trespassing on public land, nevertheless seek to estop the United States Government, acting through the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, from ordering them to remove a dam and pond constructed on federal land in December 1988. Underlying their argument is the belief that they are entitled to base a claim of estoppel upon a naked reliance on asserted government misrepresentation, without any underlying claim of title to the land itself. We conclude that the government may not…