Jones County School District v. Mississippi Department of Revenue

PIERCE, Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. This case concerns three main issues. The first issue is whether a school district is liable for oil and gas severance taxes on its royalty interests derived from oil and gas production on sixteenth-section land. The chancellor ruled that it is not. He found that sixteenth-section lands are held in trust for the benefit of local township schools and that payment of severance taxes diverts money from the purposes of that trust. The second issue is whether the statute of limitations restricts the time period in which a school district can seek a refund of…