Every person in the actual possession of lands or tenements under claim and color of title made in good faith, and who shall have continued for ten successive years in such possession, and shall also during said time have paid all taxes legally assessed on such lands or tenements, shall be held and adjudged to be the legal owner of said lands or tenements to the extent and according to the purport of his paper title. All persons holding under such possession by purchase, devise, or descent before said ten years shall have expired, and who shall have continued such possession and payment of taxes as aforesaid so as to complete said term of ten years of such possession and payment of taxes, shall be entitled to the benefit of this section.
S.D. Codified Laws § 15-3-15
Vesting of title by possession and payment of taxes for ten years under color of title--Continuation of possession and tax payment by successor in interest
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Taylor v. Tripp (1983)
Most recently applied in Dissolution of Healy Ranch, Inc. (March 2026)
Source: SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 33.0228.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.