Article XIV, Section 5 of the Texas Constitution

This section was repealed August 5, 1969.

Editor Comments

The former section was adopted in 1876 and never amended.

It read: "All lands heretofore or hereafter granted to railway companies, where the charter or law of the State required or shall hereafter require their alienation within a certain period, on pain of forfeiture, or is silent on the subject of forfeiture, and which lands have not been or shall not hereafter be alienated, in conformity with the terms of their charters, and the laws under which the grants were made, are hereby declared forfeited to the State and subject to pre-emption, location and survey, as other vacant lands. All lands heretofore granted to said railroad companies to which no forfeiture was attached, on their failure to alienate, are not included in the foregoing clause, but in all such last named cases it shall be the duty of the attorney general, in every instance where alienations have been or hereafter may be made, to inquire into the same, and if such alienation has been made in fraud of the rights of the State, and is colorable only, the real and beneficial interest being still in such corporation, to institute legal proceedings in the county where the seat of government is situated to forfeit such lands to the State, and if such alienation be judicially ascertained to be fraudulent and colorable as aforesaid, such lands shall be forfeited to the State and become a part of the vacant public domain, liable to pre-emption, location and survey."

Categorized as "deadwood," it and numerous other sections were repealed by the same ballot proposition in 1969.

Attorney Steve Smith

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