11-17-9 - Confirmation of state land patents; decree; effect of fraud and failure to pay purchase price.
§ 11-17-9. Confirmation of state land patents; decree; effect of fraud and failure to pay purchase price.
Upon the hearing of such cases, it shall be the duty of the chancery court to enter a decree validating and perfecting the title of said land from the state of Mississippi, unless it shall appear to the court and the court shall find as a fact that the state has not acquired title to said land by virtue of said tax sale, or that the title to the said land involved in the suit was divested out of the state of Mississippi without payment of purchase price or by reason of actual fraud on the part of the patentee, or his representatives. In such cases of fraud and failure to pay purchase price, the chancery court shall enter a decree forever annulling and cancelling the said patent; but no patent heretofore issued shall be cancelled in such proceeding because of loss of the application papers to purchase said land, or because of errors or omissions or incorrect statements in said application, or other papers in connection with the sale of said land, such matters not constituting fraud as above defined.
Sources: Codes, 1942, § 1317; Laws, 1940, ch. 309.