29-1-87 - Patents cancelled where state has no title.
§ 29-1-87. Patents cancelled where state has no title.
If the State of Mississippi, through the auditor or land commissioner's office, has heretofore issued or shall hereafter issue a patent or patents for any lands to which the state holds no title, or which did not belong to it at the time of the issuance of such patent or patents, or any part of which land may have caved into the river before the issuance of such patent or patents, or by oversight or otherwise two patents may have been or may hereafter be issued therefor, the land commissioner shall investigate the case and report to the attorney general, who, if he shall find the lands so patented did not belong to the state, shall so report to the land commissioner. If the land commissioner shall find that such lands or any part thereof had caved into the river before the issuance of such patent, or that the patentee did not acquire any land or title under such patent, he shall mark such patent or patents or, in case of the loss of the original, a certified copy of such patents, "cancelled," and take them or a duly certified copy to the auditor of public accounts, who shall file the same as a voucher in his office and shall issue his warrant in favor of the patentee or his or her assignees, heirs, or representatives for the amount paid to and retained by the state for such cancelled patent or patents. The land commissioner shall certify all such cancellations to the clerk of the chancery court of the county in which said patents have been recorded, and said clerk shall thereupon cancel the record of it. That part of the purchase price paid to the county, levee board, or drainage district by the land commissioner shall be refunded to the purchaser of such lands by the board of supervisors of said county or the board of commissioners of said levee district or drainage board; and the costs and charges of the chancery clerk, sheriff, and tax collector shall be borne equally by the county and the state. When only a part of the purchase money is refunded, it shall be first noted by the land commissioner in ink across the face of such patent and then noted by the chancery clerk upon the record of patent, cancelling it in such proportion only.
Sources: Codes, 1906, § 2947; Hemingway's 1917, § 5282; 1930, § 6046; 1942, § 4143; Laws, 1904, p. 183; Laws, 1942, ch. 235.