§ 22-5-410 - Overdue tax lands and internal improvement lands.
22-5-410. Overdue tax lands and internal improvement lands.
(a) Where the claim of the State of Arkansas to any land sold to the state under decree of the Pulaski County Chancery Court and under decree of the circuit and chancery courts of the various counties of the state, known as overdue tax decrees, and under decrees of the Pulaski County Chancery Court wherein various tracts of internal improvement lands were decreed to be sold and were sold back to the state, conflicts with the claim of any citizen or resident of the State of Arkansas who has been in possession of the land, or who, together with those under whom he or she claims and from whom he or she deraigns title by deed or inheritance, shall have paid the regular amount of county and state taxes assessed against the land, the taxes having been assessed against the land at the same rate as other lands to which the state has and had no claim were assessed, for twenty (20) years continuously prior to the passage of this section, the State of Arkansas relinquishes its title to the land in favor of the occupant and claimant thereof.
(b) When the owner or occupant shall present to the Commissioner of State Lands satisfactory proof that he or she and those under whom he or she claims and from whom he or she deraigns title have been in continuous and undisturbed possession of the land for a period of twenty (20) years, or shall have continuously paid taxes thereon for a period of twenty (20) years under color of title, it is the duty of the Commissioner of State Lands to execute to the owner, occupant, or claimant a deed quitclaiming all the title and interest of the state in the land on payment to the Commissioner of State Lands of a fee of five dollars ($5.00).