“ No instrument conveying the lands to the board of the levee district was ever executed by the state auditor or the register of the state land office, or recorded in the recorder's office of the parish. But in 1895 the board sold and deeded the lands to the remote grantors of the fishing club for the agreed price of $1,100, or 10 cents per acre, which was deposited in a bank under an agreement whereby it would be payable to the board whenever the latter should perfect the title by obtaining a conveyance from the auditor and register. ”

“ With this statement of the case, we come to consider whether it presents any question under that clause of the Constitution which declares: 'No state shall . . . pass any . . . law impairing the obligation of contracts.' This clause, as its terms disclose, is not directed against all impairment of contract obligations, but only against such as results from a subsequent exertion of the legislative power of the state. ”

“ This was a suit by the state of Louisiana against the Cross Lake Shooting and Fishing Club, to recover about 11,000 acres of land, in the parish of Caddo, in that state, of which the fishing club was in possession, and to which it was asserting title, under a sale and deed made to its remote grantors by the board of commissioners of the Caddo levee district. Although defeated in the district court, the state prevailed in the supreme court, and there obtained a final judgment in its favor. ”