Milam County v. J. M. Bateman

Citations

• 54 Tex. 153
• 1880 Tex. LEXIS 141

Syllabus

<p>1. Vested right—Location and survey.—A valid location on vacant land, and a survey thereunder, constitutes a vested right, and the legislature does not retain the absolute disposition of the land until the patent issues.</p> <p>3. Counties.— Counties are bodies corporate and politic, and have capacity to take and hold title in fee to real and personal property; as such they could acquire title to their school lands donated by the state.</p> <p>3. Constitutional law — County school lands.—The grants, first of three leagues, and afterwards of four leagues of land to each county for school purposes, made by the act of January 36, 1839, and the act of January 16, 1850, were recognized and confirmed by see. 4, art. X of the constitution of 1845.</p> <p>4. Constitutional law—School lands.— Though, under the constitution of 1869, the legislature had the right to control county school lands and to provide for their sale, the proceeds to be added to the public school fund of the state, without any reservation such as was contained in the constitution of 1886, that each county should receive the full benefit of the interest arising from the proceeds of sales of its lands, yet the constitution of 1869 did not divest the title of the counties to their school lands.</p> <p>5. Same.—Construing section 6, art. VII of the constitution of 1876, in connection with the constitutions which preceded it, it is clear that it has always been the intention of the state to vest the right of property in the county school lands in the several counties respectively.</p> <p>6. Constitutional law.—The legislature, as the representative of the state sovereignty, can exercise absolute power, when not restrained by constitutional prohibition, over the political rights of counties; and those rights are not within the constitutional prohibition against retroactive laws, and those which impair vested rights. The property rights of a county, however, are protected by the same constitutional guarantee