## TEEE ATTORNEY GENERAL
OF-XAS
AIWTIN, **TEXAS** V53711
December 5, 1968

Honorable Jerry Sadler Commissioner General Land Office Austin, Texas 78781 Opinion Noi M-311
Re: Whether Commissionerof General Land Office or Veterans' Land Board may reinstate forfeitedpurchase contract.
Dear Mr. Sadler:
In your recent request for opinion,you present the following fact situationand questions in regard to the operation of the Veterans'LandBoard and its affairs.
“Ithas been the general concensusof opinion in the past years, and it is currently the opinion of this office, that the administration of the Veterans Land Program is primarily the duty of the General Land Office and its employees.

. . . . "The Board held a forfeited land sale on November 19, 1968, at 11:OOA.M. here in the General Land Office following the provisions of Article 5421m. Just prior to the sale,but subsequent to the time that the Boardmet and ordered tracts to be advertised for resale, one of the originalveteran purchasers,whose tractwas forfeited in accordancewith Article 542lm, and whose tractwas ordered advertised for resale in accordancewith Article 542lm, asked the Commissionerof the General Land Office to accept payment in full of the original contract and to furnishhim with a paid-in-fulldeed.

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Hon. Jerry Sadler, page 2 (M-311 )

The Commissionerof the General Land Office refused to acceptpayment in full;however, the Veterans Land Board,having some question in their mind, would like for your office to inform us of the lecal riahts of the Commissioner to reinstate the contract referred to above. If you conclude that the contract of sale cannot be reinstatedafter it has been forfeited and ordered advertised for resale, can the originalveteran tender the full payment due under the contract and receive a paid-in-full deed after he has lost all ri 'ghts to reinstatehis contract?" (Emphasissupplied to question.) Article III, Section 49b of the Texas Constitution part as follows: provides in

"TheCommissionerof the General Land Office shall act as Chairman of the Board and shall be the administratorof the Veterans' Land Program under such terms and restrictionsas ._-. _ . are now or may hereafterbe prOViaea by law." Section 2 of Article 5421m,Vernon's Civil Statutes,provides in part that: "TheCommissioner of the General Land Office shallbe Chairman of the Board and Administrator of theVeterans' Land Program
. . . and shall Perform all duties and functionsof the Board .- ~~~ ~~~ prescribed by law, except those prescribed in section 2(A) hereof,which shall be performed by the Veterans' Land Board as constituted. (Emphasissupplied) Said Section 2(A), above referred to provides in part that: "The duties of the Veterans' Land Board

... shall e... 0 provide for the forfeitureof contracts of sale and purchase and the resale of forfeited rand; and to formulate such policies, rules and regulationsas may be necessary, not in conflict with the provisions of law, to insure the proper administrationof the law and to carry out the intent and purposes thereof." (Emphasissupplied) Section 19 of Article 542lm,provides in part that:
"In any case where the sale has been forfeitedand title to the land revested in the Veterans' Land

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Fund, the originalpurchaser or his vendee shall have the right to reinstate the purchase contract at any time prior to the date on which the Board shallhave met and ordered the said lands to be advertised for resale, or for lease for mineral developmentbut not thereafter."
In answer to your question as presented, it is the opinion of this office that the Commissionerof the General Land Office, as Administrator of the Veterans' Land Program, is without authority to reinstate a purchase contract after it has been forfeited and ordered advertised for resale; and further, that once the contracthas been forfeited and the land ordered advertised for resale, the originalveteranmay not, in the absence of further action on the part of the Veterans' Land Board as hereinafter set out, tender the full payment due under the contract and "receivea paid-in-fulldeed," for to so allow would require a prior reinstatingof the contract, which is prohibited.
It must be pointed out, however, that the above answers are directed, and limited, to the Commissionerof the General Land Office as statutory administratorof the Veteran's Land Program and are predicatedupon the premise that the contract has been forfeitedwith no subsequentaction by theVeterans' Land Board as hereinafterdescribed. Forfeitureprovisions in statutes are strictly construed,not favored, and will be interpretedwhere possible to prevent, rather to cause, a forfeiture. 25 Tex. Jur.Zd 511, Forfeitures, Sec. 10; also p. 502, Sec. 3, declaring forfeitures to be a harsh remedy disfavoredboth at law and in equity. There appears to be no reasonwhy the forfeitureprovisions of a contractbetween theVeterans' Land Board and a veteran purchaserwould not be subject to the same rules in regard to their enforcement,waiver and setting aside as would a like contractbetween two individuals,as such rules are set out in the case of Stevensonv. Lohman, 218 S.W.Zd 311, 314 (Tex. Civ.App. 1949, error ref.) towit:
We agreewith appellant that the courts do not favor forfeitureand when proper equities are shown to exist equitywill intervene andwill deny unjust enforcement of the naked legal right to a forfeiture. On the other hand,when parties enter into a contractproviding that either should forfeithis rights thereunderupon default in any of the material provisions, thereof, it then becomes the burden of the party resisting such forfeitureto plead and prove -1517-Hon. Jerry Sadler,page 4 (M-311 )

such facts as would justify a court of equity in preventinghis adversary from doing thatwhich otherwise, under the law, he has a right to do, but in equity and good consciencehe should not be permitted to do." Section 19 of Article 542l.m provides certainprerequisites to the declaring of a forfeitureby the Veterans' Land Board. Automatic forfeiture is not specified,but forfeiture operates at the discretion of the Board. Section 21 of Article 542lm,provides in part that: "The Board is herebymade the sole judge of forfeiture of aTcontract under thisAct, and anyone availinghimself of the provisions of this Act shallby so doing agree to abide by the same ..." (Emphasissupplied) No specific time limit is placed upon the Boardwithin which it can make. such determination. Section 17 of Article 5421mprovides in part that 'I... in any individual case, the Board may, for good cause, postpone from time to time, upon such terms as the Board may deem proper, the payment of the whole or any part of any installmentof the sellingprice or interest thereon." No specific time limitation is placed upon the Board within which it can make such decision to postpone such payment. When forfeituresare intended to take place automatically,the time should be definitely fixed. 25 Tex.Jur.2d 517, Sec. 17, Forfeitures.
It would therefore appear that upon sufficient showing to the Board that in equity and good conscience the contract should not be finally forfeited, the Board, being the "sole judge of forfeiture",and not having lost administrative jurisdiction of the forfeitureaction,may by majority vote determine that there has in fact been no forfeitureand annul its purported forfeiture, thus in effect reinstating the contract. It would further appear that for "goodcause" the Board by majority vote may postpone the due date of the delinquentpayments, thus rescinding the purported forfeiture and reinstating the contract. There being no specific limitationof timewithin which the Board may take either such action, and any subsequentbidder having agreed to "abideby the same", it is the opinion of this office that even though the Board has theretoforemet and ordered said lands to be advertised for resale, either of such actionsmay be takenby the Board and the contract reinstated at any time, at leastuntil the Board has accepted a subsequent bid for resale and the rights of third partieshave vested.
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Hon. Jerry Sadler, page 5 (M-311 )

SUMMARY The Commissionerod the General Land Office, as Administrator of the Veterans' Land Program, is without authority to accept delinquentpayments and reinstate a purchase contract after the same has been forfeited and theVeterans Land Board shall have met and ordered the lands to be advertised for resale:but theVeterans' Land Boardmay do so at any time, at least until it has acceoted the bid of a subsecuent DUrChaSer and the kghts of third parties-havetested.

Prepared by Harold G. Kennedy u AssistantAttorney General
APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE 

# 2-@ s very truly, 

# &&,&&. &pzdr..~,.,
RA ORDC.MARTIN rney General of Texas

Kerns Taylor, Chairman Jerry Roberts David Longoria Fielding Early Bob Flowers
A. J. CARUBBI, JR. ExecutiveAssistant

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