Archives > 1976 South Carolina Code of Laws - Previous Versions > 2005 Session > Title 27

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Title 27 - Property and Conveyances

CHAPTER 15.

CATAWBA INDIAN LANDS

SECTION 27-15-10. Catawba Indians may lease their lands.

It shall be lawful for the Catawba Indians to grant and make to any person any lease or leases, for life or lives or term of years, of any of the lands vested in them by the laws of this State; provided, that no lease shall exceed the term of ninety-nine years or three lives in being.

SECTION 27-15-20. Formal requisites of lease.

No lease of the lands of the Catawba Indians, whether for life or lives or term of years, shall be held or deemed as valid and good in law unless it be signed and sealed by at least four of the head men or chiefs of the Catawba Indians.

SECTION 27-15-30. Certain rights vested in lessees of Catawba Indians.

All the reversionary right, title and interest of this State in and to the Catawba Indian lands, situated in the counties of York and Lancaster, within a boundary of fifteen miles square and which are represented in the plat of survey made by Samuel Wiley, dated February 22, 1764 and now on file in the office of the Secretary of State, are hereby vested in the persons who may hold such lands as lessees of the Catawba Indians, their heirs and assigns, according to the location of their respective leases.

SECTION 27-15-40. Grants to lessees of leased Catawba Indian lands.

Each lessee of the Catawba Indian lands who shall deposit with the Secretary of State his lease and also the receipt or receipts of the former tax collector of the county wherein such lands may be situated for such taxes as may have been paid thereon, as heretofore required by law, shall be entitled to locate and receive a grant from the State (in the manner provided by law for granting vacant lands) for the land held by him under lease, upon payment of the usual fees, and thenceforth hold the land so granted in the same right as any other lands granted by this State are held.

SECTION 27-15-50. Proceedings by lessee if lease be lost.

If any lessee of the Catawba Indian lands, being in possession, shall not have it in his power to deposit the lease under which he holds, as required by Section 27-15-40, by reason of its loss or otherwise, such person shall file in the office of the Secretary of State a notice of his intention to apply for the issuing of a grant and shall publish such notice in one or more of the newspapers of the county in which such land is situated for at least three months before the time of such intended application. Such notice shall set forth the cause of the inability of such person to produce such lease and shall be verified by the oath of the applicant. And such grant shall thereupon issue if the person applying be otherwise entitled thereto, provided, that if any other person shall, within five years from the issuing of such grant, produce a lease of the premises so granted, such grant shall thereupon become null and void.