29-1-85 - Failure of title to public lands.
§ 29-1-85. Failure of title to public lands.
If the title to any public land contracted for sale under Section 29-1-39 or sold by the state through the auditor or land office or by any municipality shall fail, or shall have failed, the state or such municipality, as the case may be, shall refund the purchase-money to its vendee or his heirs or assigns; and if no profits have been received from said lands, then all taxes shall be returned also, and all fees paid, with interest at six per centum per annum. Except as provided in this chapter, the question of failure of title can only be determined in a suit filed in the county in which the land is situated, and the land commissioner or the municipality, as the case may be, shall be made a party to every such suit. Where such failure of title shall have been caused by the cancellation of a contract or a patent issued by the state, or a deed from the municipality, under the requirements of any law or decree of a chancery court of this state, directing cancellation in favor of prior purchasers, or through the failure of the state's title, or the title of the municipality, as the case may be, where such failure shall have been caused by the striking of the land from the state land rolls under the requirements of any law of this state, the failure of title so caused shall not be required to be determined by decree of court.
Sources: Codes, 1892, § 2588; 1906, § 2927; Hemingway's 1917, § 5262; 1930, § 6045; 1942, §§ 4134, 4142; Laws, 1900, ch. 65; Laws, 1942, ch. 235; Laws, 1948, ch. 494, § 1.