All reservations of oil and gas and other mineral rights and sales of previously reserved oil and gas and other mineral rights in county lands made or entered into by any county prior to May 20, 1949, acting by its board of county commissioners, all leases of oil and gas or rights, and all unit agreements relating to or dealing with oil and gas and containing provisions similar to those set forth in section 30-11-304, affecting county lands, made or entered into by any county prior to May 20, 1949, acting by its board of county commissioners are hereby confirmed, validated, and declared to be legal and valid in all respects.
Source: L. 49: p. 327, § 4. CSA: C. 45, § 25(4). CRS 53: § 36-11-4. C.R.S. 1963: § 36-11-4.
ANNOTATION
Reservation subsequently validated. Where a county sold land acquired by tax sale and reserved the minerals therein without authority at the time of such sale, such reservation where thereafter validated by this section. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).
This validating act was intended by the general assembly to apply to sales of surface rights, and it validates such sales unless subject to some constitutional objection. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).
No impairment of vested rights. Generally speaking, the general assembly may, within the constitutional limits of its power, cure formal defects in deeds and other written instruments, and give them the same validity as though they had been properly executed, since such legislation, even though it may operate to cut off a right of action that would otherwise exist, is not considered as depriving anyone of vested rights, but rather as carrying into effect the intent of the parties. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).
The general assembly may validate retrospectively any proceeding which it might have authorized in advance, or may cure by subsequent statute what it might have dispensed with altogether. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).
A curative or validating statute is one whose purpose is to cure past errors, omissions, and neglects, and thus to make valid what, before the enactment of the statute, was invalid. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).
But a validating statute grants no indulgence for the correction of future errors and neglects. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).
And § 11 of art. II, Colo. Const., does not apply, and was not intended to apply, to acts validating contracts theretofore made on behalf of the state. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).
Quieting title decree correct. Where a deed of land by a county reserving to the county the minerals therein, though invalid when made, had been validated by this section, precluded the grantee from asserting ownership of the minerals which by the validated deed were expressly reserved to the county, and a decree quieting title to the minerals in the county was correct. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).
This section expressly governs lands acquired by a county on account of nonpayment of taxes as evidenced by § 30-11-301. Farnik v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 139 Colo. 481, 341 P.2d 467 (1959).