§ 15-17 — Patents

Every purchaser of common school lands shall be entitled to a patent from the State, conveying and assuring the title. Patents shall be issued by the Secretary of State from returns made to him by the county superintendent, township land commissioners or county board of school trustees as the case may be. They shall contain a description of the land granted and shall be in the name of and signed by the Governor, with the great seal of State affixed thereto by the Secretary of State, and shall operate to vest in the purchaser a title in fee simple. When patents are so executed the Secretary of State shall note on the list of sales the date of each patent in such manner as to perpetuate the evidence of its date and delivery and thereupon transmit it to the county superintendent of the proper county, to be by him delivered to the patentee, his heirs, or assigns, upon the return of the original certificate of purchase, which certificate, when returned, shall be filed and preserved by the county superintendent. All such patents for school lands, or certified copies thereof from any record legally made, shall, after 10 years from the date of the patent, and such sale having been acquiesced in for 10 years by the inhabitants of the township in which the land so conveyed is situated, be conclusive evidence as to the legality of the sale, and that the title to such land was, at the date of patent, legally vested in the patentee.

Legislative History

(Source: Laws 1961, p. 31.)