Byron White

“ Given these objectives and the impediments posed to their fulfillment by timeless reinstatement rights, a statute of repose was quite clearly necessary. The measure taken to induce defaulting purchasers to comply with their contracts, requiring payment of interest in arrears within five years, was a mild one indeed, hardly burdensome to the purchaser who wanted to adhere to his contract of purchase, but nonetheless an important one to the State's interest. ”

“ Thus, for example, the Land Commissioner was required to reclassify forfeited lands by the next sale day and to publicize widely the forfeiture and sale. Weaver v. Robison, 114 Tex. 272, 268 S.W. 133. This policy clearly indicates that the right of reinstatement was not conceived to be an endless privilege conferred on a defaulting buyer. A contrary construction would render the buyer's obligations under the contract quite illusory while obliging the State to transfer the land whenever the purchaser decided to comply with the contract, all this for a nominal down payment. ”

“ We turn to the merits. The City seeks to bring this case within the long line of cases recognizing a distinction between contract obligation and remedy and permitting a modification of the remedy as long as there is no substantial impairment of the value of the obligation. ”

“ The statute giving the Commissioner authority to declare a forfeiture merely supplied a more effective way of enforcing the State's common-law right of rescission.↑ The provisions dealing with forfeiture, which is one of the State's remedies in case of breach, and reinstatement, which is the purchaser's remedy to cure his breach, both operate on the rights of a party after breach and thus concern the enforcement of the contract. In this sense they are remedial and the statute of repose challenged here is an alteration of remedy rather than obligation.↑ Texas Constitution, art. ”

“ We do not pause to consider further whether the Court of Appeals correctly ascertained the Texas law at the time these contracts were made, or to chart again the dividing line under federal law between 'remedy' and 'obligation,' or to determine the extent to which this line is controlled by state court decisions, decisions often rendered in contexts not involving Contract Clause considerations. ”

“ Of course, the power of a State to modify or affect the obligation of contract is not without limit. ' (W) hatever is reserved of state power must be consistent with the fair intent of the constitutional limitation of that power. ”

“ Tex.Gen. & Spec.Laws 1951, ch. 59, § 1, Vernon's Ann.Civ.Stat. art. 5320a; Tex.Gen. & Spec.Laws 1961, ch. 399, § 1, Vernon's Ann.Civ.Stat. art. 5421c-9.↑ Tex.Gen.Laws 1919, ch. 163, § 5, as amended by Tex.Gen.Laws 1925, ch. ”