No officer shall receive evidence in, hear, or determine any cause pending in any district land office in which cause he is interested directly or indirectly, or has been of counsel, or where he is related to any of the parties in interest by consanguinity or affinity within the fourth degree, computing by the rules adopted by the common law.
(Jan. 11, 1894, ch. 10, §1,
This section, as originally enacted, was applicable to both registers and receivers. The office of receiver was abolished by acts Oct. 28, 1921, and Mar. 3, 1925, which consolidated the two offices. See, also, Transfer of Functions note below.
For transfer of functions of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174,
Word "officer" substituted for "register" on authority of section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946. See note set out under section 1 of this title.