Article XXVI
Schedule and Ordinance
§1. Continuation of prior writs, actions, claims, and bodies corporate -- Validation of previously issued process.
That no inconvenience may arise from the change of the territorial government to the permanent state government, it is hereby declared that all writs, actions, prosecutions, claims and rights of individuals, and all bodies corporate, shall continue as if no change had taken place in this government; and all process which may be before the organization of the judicial department, under this Constitution, issued under the authority of the territory of Dakota, within the boundary of this state, shall be as valid as if issued in the name of the state of South Dakota.
§2. Fines, forfeitures and escheats of territory to accrue to state.
That all fines, penalties, forfeitures and escheats accruing to the territory of Dakota, within the boundary of the state of South Dakota, shall accrue to the use of said state.
§3. Recognizances, bonds, obligations and undertakings -- Criminal prosecutions and penal actions.
That all recognizances, bonds, obligations or other undertakings, heretofore taken, or which may be taken before the organization of the judicial department under this Constitution, shall remain valid, and shall pass over to, and may be prosecuted in the name of the state of South Dakota; and all bonds, obligations or undertakings, executed to this territory, within the boundaries of the state of South Dakota, or to any officer in his official capacity, shall pass over to the proper state authority, and to their successors in office, for the uses therein respectively expressed, and may be sued for and recovered accordingly.
All criminal prosecutions and penal actions, which have arisen, or which may arise before the organization of the judicial department under this Constitution, and which shall then be pending, may be prosecuted to judgment and executed in the name of the state.
§4. Civil and military officers.
All officers, civil and military, now holding their offices and appointments in this territory under the authority of the United States, or under the authority of the territory of Dakota, shall continue to hold and exercise their respective offices and appointments until superseded under this Constitution: provided, that the provisions of the above sections shall be subject to the provisions of the act of Congress providing for the admission of the state of South Dakota, approved by the president of the United States on February 22, 1889.
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