Found Property. Using a metal detector, Billy Ray Shivers found metal tokens at the site of an abandoned sawmill that once belonged to Aldridge Lumber Co The mill used the tokens fifty to a hundred years ago as payment for its workers. Because the site

Question

was in Angelina Na-tional Forest, the federal government claimed ownership of the tokens and seized them. Shivers filed a motion in a federal district court against the government, seeking to have the tokens returned. Should the court grant the motion? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Found property
The court granted the motion, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the lower court's decision. Shivers did not acquire ownership rights in the tokens, because they belonged to the United States, the owner of the land in which the tokens were buried. The appellate court acknowledged that finders usually acquire rights to abandoned property without regard to where it is found. There are two exceptions, however: "First, when the abandoned property is embedded in the soil, it belongs to the owner of the soil. Second, when the owner of the land where the property is found * * * has constructive possession of the property such that the property is not lost, it belongs to the owner of the land." In this case, the first exception applied—the tokens were embedded in the soil of the Angelina National Forest and "this soil belongs to the United States."