ARTICLE XIII.

SPANISH AND MEXICAN LAND TITLES.

SECTION I. All fines, penalties, forfeitures and escheats, which have heretofore accrued to the Republic and State of Texas, under their constitutions and laws shall accrue to the state under this constitution,and the legislature shall provide a method for determining what lands have been forfeited, and for giving effect to escheats; and all such rights of forfeiture and escheat to the state shall, ipso facto, enure to the protection of the innocent holders of junior titles, as provided in section 2, 3 and 4 of this article.

Locations made in violation of law do not give rights under this section. Mex. Ry. Co. v. Locke,

12 S. W. R., 89.

See where it is intimated that a location on valid

land certificate made before the adoption of the constitution, would constitute color of title, which would entitle the holder to the benefit of this section. Id.

This section does not authorize the legislature to create an escheat; it simply directs it to provide a method for ascertaining whether or not there has been, in any case, an escheat. Caplen v. Compton, 27 S. W. R., 25.

SEC. 2. Any claim of title or right to land in

Texas, issued prior to the 13th day of November, 1835, not duly recorded in the county where the land was situated at the time of such record; or not duly archived in the general land office; or not in the actual possession of the grantee thereof, or some person claiming under him, prior to the accruing of junior title thereto from the sovereignty of the soil, under circumstances reasonably calculated to give notice to said junior grantee, has never had, and shall not have, standing or effect against such junior title, or color of title, acquired without such or actual notice of such prior claim of title or right; and no condition annexed to such grants, not archived or recorded, or occupied as aforesaid, has been, or ever shall be, released or waived, but actual performance of all such conditions shall be proved by the person or persons claiming under such title or claim of right in order to maintain action thereon, and the holder of such junior title, or color of title, shall have all the rights of the government which have heretofore existed, or now exist, arising from the non-performance of all such conditions.

Holders of land under "Junior Title" or "Color of Title," as stated in this section and section 1 of this article, are those holding under a grant or patent subsequent to the one in conflict, or under such title as matured upon a location, prior to the adoption of the constitution. Texas-Mexican Ry. Co. v. Locke, 74 T., 370, 12 S. W. R., 80.

SEC. 3. Non payment of taxes on any claim of title to land dated prior to the 13th day of November, 1835, not rcorded or archived, as provided in section 2, by the person or persons so claiming, or those under whom he or they so claim, from that date up to the date of the adoption of this constitution, shall be held to be a presumption that the right thereto has reverted to the state, and that said claim is a stale demand, which presumption shall only be rebutted by payment of all taxes on said lands, state, county, and city or town, to be assessed on the fair value of such lands by the comptroller, and paid to him, without commutation or deduction for any part of the above period.

SEC. 4. No claim of title or right to land, which issued prior to the 13th day of November, 1835, which has not been duly recorded in the county where the land was situated at the time of such record, or which has not been duly archived in the general land office, shall ever hereafter be deposited in the general land office, or recorded in this state, or delineated on the maps, or used as evidence in any of the courts of this state, and the same are stale claims; but this shall not affect such rights or presumptions as arise from actual possession. By the words, "duly recorded," as used in sections 2 and 4 of this article, is meant that such claim of title or right to land shall have been re

corded in the proper office, and the mere errors in the certificate of registration, or informality, not affecting the fairness and good faith of the holder thereof, with which the record was made, shall not be held to vitiate such record.1

A Mexican grant, deposited in the land office, subsequent to 1876, is admissible in evidence, if valid, notwithstanding this section, which forbids any claim of title to land issued prior to Nov., 1835, to be used in evidence. Lerma v. Stevenson, 40 Federal Reporter, 356.

The clause "that no claim of right or title to land which issued prior to the 13th of November, 1835, etc.,' has application only to such evidence of right as before that time could have been archived or recorded, namely, writings evidencing title. Tex.-Mex. Ry. Co. v. Locke, 74 T., 370, 12 S. W. R., 80.

The effect of this section was to deny to holders of the claims as were not recorded or archived at its adoption, the power or right to exhibit their rights in due course of law. And the only means recognized in this section, for establishing title not recorded or archived, is by possession so long that a grant may be presumed under the rule applicable to it. Id.

This section has no application to a transcript of a vista general of 1767, concerning the City of Laredo, which transcript was deposited in the land office before the constitution was adopted. Ry. Co. v. Jarvis, 69 T., 527, 7 S. W. R., 210.

A second copy of a title delivered to a party to serve him as a title, is not considered an archive of the land office, and a certified copy of it is not admissible. Hanrick v. Dood, 62 T., 75; Hanrick v. Cavanan, 60 T.

I. Prior to the adoption of the constitution, a title under a Mexican grant did not have to be registered or achieved. Gonzales v. Ross, 120 U. S., 607.