Kansas Statutes

Chapter 75: State Departments; Public Officers And Employees

Article 28: State Land Office And Register

Statutes:

• 75-2801: Secretary of state ex officio register; books and records; correspondence.
• 75-2802: Separate tract books.
• 75-2803: Manner of ruling tract books; matters shown on record.
• 75-2804: State land office; inspection of documents and records; certified copies of abstracts.
• 75-2805: Patents.
• 75-2806: Patents for land; certified copies; fee, approval.
• 75-2807: Certificate for issuance of patent.
• 75-2808: Correction of clerical errors by register.
• 75-2809: Public surveys; records, safekeeping and access.
• 75-2810: Relinquishment of color of title to the United States.
• 75-2811: Error in deeding land to state or in making out transfer.
• 75-2812: Lists of lands granted to state; effect of recording.
• 75-2813: Recording of certified copy of patent.
• 75-2814: Cancellation and issuance of new patent for defective patent; recordation and correction of errors.
• 75-2815:
• 75-2816:

• 75-2801: Secretary of state ex officio register; books and records; correspondence. The secretary of state shall be ex officio register of the state land office. The books and records of such office shall be so kept as to show and preserve an accurate chain of title from the general government to the purchaser of each smallest subdivision of land; to preserve a permanent record, in books suitably indexed, of all correspondence with any of the departments of the general government in relation to state lands; to preserve, by proper records, copies of the original lists furnished by the selecting agents of the state, and of all other papers in relation to such lands which are of permanent interest.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 1; R.S. 1923, 75-2801; L. 1974, ch. 364, § 21; Jan. 13, 1975.

• 75-2802: Separate tract books. Separate tract books shall be kept for the university, the saline lands, the half-million acre grant, the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections and lands in lieu of the same for common schools, the swamplands, the agricultural university lands, and such other lands as the state now owns or may hereafter own, so that each description of state lands shall be kept separate from all others; and each set of tract books shall be a complete record of all the lands to which they relate.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 2; March 10; R.S. 1923, 75-2802.

• 75-2803: Manner of ruling tract books; matters shown on record. Said tract books shall be ruled in a manner similar to those used in United States land offices, so as to record each tract by its smallest legal subdivision, its section, township and range, to whom sold and when, the price per acre, to whom patented and when.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 3; March 10; R.S. 1923, 75-2803.

• 75-2804: State land office; inspection of documents and records; certified copies of abstracts. The state land office shall be kept open during business hours, and shall have the personal supervision of the register or his or her deputy; the documents and records therein shall be subject to inspection in the presence of the register by parties having an interest therein, and certified copies thereof, or abstracts signed by said register, with the seal of said office attached, shall be deemed presumptive evidence of the fact to which they relate, and on request they shall be furnished by the register for a reasonable compensation.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 4; March 10; R.S. 1923, 75-2804.

• 75-2805: Patents. Patents for land shall issue from the state land office, shall be signed by the governor and recorded by the register; and each patent shall contain therein a marginal certificate of the book and page on which it is recorded, which certificate shall be signed by the register; and all patents shall be delivered free of charge.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 5; March 10; R.S. 1923, 75-2805.

• 75-2806: Patents for land; certified copies; fee, approval. In case of loss or destruction of patent, from any cause, the party so losing may apply to the secretary of state for a certified copy thereof, which when issued under his or her hand and official seal shall be deemed and held to be of the same tenure and effect as the original patent. For such certified copy of patent the secretary of state shall fix and charge a fee in an amount approved by the director of accounts and reports under K.S.A. 45-204.

        History:   L. 1867, ch. 135, § 6; G.S. 1868, ch. 100, § 6; R.S. 1923, 75-2806; L. 1974, ch. 364, § 22; L. 1978, ch. 347, § 20; July 1.

• 75-2807: Certificate for issuance of patent. No patent shall be issued for any lands belonging to the state except upon the certificate of the person or officer specially charged with the custody of the same, setting forth the appraised value per acre if otherwise required by law to be so appraised, name of the person to whom sold, date of sale, price per acre, amount paid, name of person making final payment, and of person who is entitled to the patent, and, if thus entitled by assignment from the original purchaser, setting forth fully such assignment, which certificate shall be filed and preserved in the land office. In any case where the certificate of sale of lands, or the assignment or assignments, have been lost or destroyed, and cannot be produced, satisfactory proof by affidavit of the existence and ownership of such certificate, assignment or assignments thereof, by two reputable citizens of the county wherein the land is situated, and satisfactory proof by affidavit of the loss or destruction of such certificate, assignment or assignments thereof, by the person who is entitled to the patent, shall be attached to the certificate of the person or officer mentioned above; and, when so proven, the patent shall issue as hereinbefore provided, but without filing or preserving such certificate, assignment or assignments in the land office.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 6; L. 1905, ch. 483, § 1; R.S. 1923, 75-2807; L. 1978, ch. 430, § 6; April 1.

• 75-2808: Correction of clerical errors by register. The register is authorized and required to correct all clerical errors of his or her office in name of grantee and description of tract of land conveyed by the state found upon the records of such office. The register shall attach his or her official certificate to each conveyance so corrected, and the reasons therefor; record the same with the record of the original conveyance, and make the necessary correction in the tract and plat books of the office. Such corrections, when made in accordance with the foregoing provisions, shall have the force and effect of a deed originally correct, subject to prior rights accrued without notice.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 7; March 10; R.S. 1923, 75-2808.

• 75-2809: Public surveys; records, safekeeping and access. The register shall receive any field notes, maps, records, or other papers relating to the public survey of this state, whenever the same shall be turned over to the state, in pursuance of an act of congress entitled "An act for the discontinuance of the office of surveyor general in the several districts as soon as the surveys therein can be completed, for abolishing land offices under certain circumstances, and for other purposes," approved June twelve, eighteen hundred and forty, and any act amendatory thereof, and shall receive any other official surveys of any state lands and any field notes, maps, records or other paper relating thereto as may be provided by law to be filed with the register, and shall provide for their safekeeping and proper arrangement as public records. Free access to the same by the lawful authority of the United States, for the purpose of taking extracts therefrom, or making copies thereof, shall always be granted.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 8; R.S. 1923, 75-2809; L. 1974, ch. 364, § 23; L. 1978, ch. 430, § 7; April 1.

• 75-2810: Relinquishment of color of title to the United States. Whenever the governor is satisfied by the commissioner of the general land office that the title to any lands which may have been certified to the state under any of the several grants is inferior to the rights of any valid interfering preemptor or claimant, the governor is authorized and required to release by deed of relinquishment such color of title to the United States, to the end that the requirements of the interior department may be complied with, and that such tract or tracts of land may be patented by the general government to the legal claimants.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 9; March 10; R.S. 1923, 75-2810.

• 75-2811: Error in deeding land to state or in making out transfer. When the governor is satisfied by proper record evidence that any tract of land which may have been deeded by virtue of any donation or sale to the state is not the land intended to have been described, or that an error has been committed in making out the transfer, in order that such error may be corrected the governor is authorized to quitclaim the same to the proper owner thereof, and to receive a deed or deeds for the lands intended to have been deeded to the state originally.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 10; March 10; R.S. 1923, 75-2811.

• 75-2812: Lists of lands granted to state; effect of recording. In cases where lands have been granted to the state of Kansas by act of congress, and certified list of lands inuring under the grant have been made to the state by the commissioner of the general land office as required by act of congress, and such lands have been granted by act of the legislature to or for the benefit of any person or company, and such person or company shall have complied with and fulfilled the conditions of the grant, the register of the state land office is hereby authorized to prepare, on application of the grantee, a list or lists of land situated in each county inuring to such grantee from the lists certified by the commissioner of the general land office as aforesaid, which shall be signed by the governor of this state and attested by the secretary of state, with the state seal, and then be certified to by the register to be true and correct copies of the lists made to this state, and deliver them to such grantee, who is hereby authorized to have them recorded in the proper county, and when so recorded they shall be notice to all persons, the same as deeds now are, and shall vest in such grantee the right of the state to the lands therein described, under the grant of congress by which the lands were certified to the state, so far as the certified lists made by the commissioner aforesaid conferred title to the state: Provided, That when the register includes lands in the list which were not intended to be included in the grant, or the grantee shall not in equity be entitled to the lands, or any part thereof, then no title shall pass by said list, and the same as to those lands shall be null and void.

        Nor shall any title pass to lands which have been selected, set apart or claimed by the state, or any individual, under the swampland or any other grant of congress which may be certified or adjudged to the state under such other grant, nor to lands held or claimed under any homestead or preemption settlement, or other entry or purchase; neither shall the right of the state to control the lands according to the terms of the grants, at any future time be affected by anything done under this section: Provided further, That in preparing the list or lists of lands under this section, the register of the state land office shall exclude all lands selected by the state or any county under the swampland grant, and also exclude all lands claimed under the homestead or preemption laws of the United States and which have been sold or disposed of and the entry or preemption canceled.

        History:   L. 1876, ch. 131, § 11; March 10; R.S. 1923, 75-2812.

• 75-2813: Recording of certified copy of patent. In any case where a purchase and payment in full has been made, and a conveyance or patent has been issued to any person or persons, signed by either the governor of the territory of Kansas or of the state of Kansas, for any tract or parcel of land embraced in any of the sections numbered sixteen or thirty-six, in the townships in this state, or any other lands confirmed to the state for any purpose whatever, and known as state lands, and which original conveyance or patent has been lost or misplaced, and does not appear of record in the state land office as provided by law, but does appear of record in the office of the register of deeds of the county in which such land described in such conveyance or patent is situated, a copy of the records of such conveyance or patent, duly certified by the register of deeds of such county to be true and correct, may be procured by any person claiming the title to such lands; and upon presentation of such certified copy to the register of the state land office, he or she shall thereupon duly record the same in the records of his or her office, and make the proper entry of such sale and conveyance, and shall enter on such certified copy of such conveyance or patent a marginal certificate of the book and page in which it is recorded, as is now provided by law in case of original patents; and such sale and conveyance is hereby confirmed, and made and declared to be in all respects as valid and binding, and the title to such lands vested, granted and conveyed as fully and completely as is now conveyed by original patent issued from the state land office, signed by the governor of the state, and recorded by the register in the state land office, as is now provided by law, subject only to prior rights accrued without notice.

        History:   L. 1881, ch. 158, § 1; March 12; R.S. 1923, 75-2813.

• 75-2814: Cancellation and issuance of new patent for defective patent; recordation and correction of errors. Upon presentation to the secretary of state of any patent to state land issued by the state of Kansas which is in any respect defective in form or in manner of execution, such secretary shall cancel such patent and file the same among the records of the state land office, and in lieu thereof shall issue to the patentee named in said defective patent a patent in proper form, which shall be signed by the governor and recorded by the register as provided by K.S.A. 75-2805, which new patent shall save the rights of the patentee and his or her grantee and heirs in all respects as if the original was not defective in form or in manner of execution. Upon presentation to the secretary of state of any patent for state land which is proper in form and manner of execution, but the record of which in the state land office is incorrect and defective, such secretary shall correctly record said patent, as provided by K.S.A. 75-2805, and shall on the present defective or incorrect record thereof make a memorandum in red ink, referring to the book and page of such correct record. Such re-issue of patents and correction of records shall be without cost to the persons so presenting said patents.

        History:   R.S. 1923, 75-2814; L. 1974, ch. 364, § 24; Jan. 13, 1975.

• 75-2815:

        History:   L. 1867, ch. 135, § 3; G.S. 1868, ch. 100, § 3; R.S. 1923, 75-2815; Repealed, L. 1965, ch. 463, § 1; June 30.

• 75-2816:

        History:   L. 1867, ch. 135, § § 1, 2, 4, 5; G.S. 1868, ch. 100, § § 1, 2, 4, 5; R.S. 1923, 75-2816; Repealed, L. 1951, ch. 445, § 1; June 30.