Chap. 580.—An ACT to incorporate the Manassas and Richmond railway com-
pany.

Approved March 3, 1894.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That Eppa
Hunton, junior, Beverly T. Crump, J. Wilcox Brown, Charles KE.
Wingo and George Mason, and such other persons as they may as-
soclate with them, and their successors, be, and they are hereby,
made and constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of
the Manassas and Richmond railway company, and shall have all
powers, rights and franchises necessary for the purpose of locating,
constructing, equipping, maintaining and operating a railroad, with
such number of tracks as they may desire, from Manassas junction,
in Prince William county, to the city of Richmond.

2. Any four of the incorporators hereinbefore named may organize
the company by electing a president and board of directors, and may
elect and appoint such other officers as may be necessary for the
proper management of said company’s affairs, and when the mini-
mum capital stock herein provided for shall have been actually sub-
scribed for, they shall have and exercise all the general powers and
functions of a corporation, and be subject to all restrictions imposed
by the laws of the state applicable to internal improvement compa-
nies, except so far as the same may be changed or modified by this
act.

3. The said company shall have authority in prosecuting this
work to build their road, or any part thereof, single or double track.

4. The capital stock of the company shall be not less than one hun-
dred and twenty-five thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of
the par value of one hundred dollars each, and said stock may be all
common or such part or parts preferred as the directors may from
time to time determine. Each share of stock shall be entitled to one
vote: provided, however, that the said company is hereby authorized
to increase its capital stock from the said sum of one hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars to an additional sum not exceeding
twenty thousand dollars per mile for each mile of main line and
such branch roads as they shall construct.

5. It shall be lawful for the said company to acquire in subscrip-
tion to the capital stock of said company, or by donations, lands or
other land damages, money, work, labor, materials, property, bonds
or other means available for their purposes, and to receive subscrip-
tion from individuals, other companies, associations or corporations,
and the said company may sell, lease or otherwise dispose of any
lands or properties acquired under this section.

6. The directors of said company may open the books for subscrip-
tion of stock, from time to time, as they may deem expedient, until
the stock is fully taken, and instalments on original subscriptions of
stock, as well as those afterwards received, shall be paid at such
times and places and in such amounts as the directors may prescribe:
provided, however, that the, directors shall require two dollars pex
share to be paid upon each share subscribed for in cash at the time
of taking any subscription, as required by section eleven hundred
and seven of the code of Virginia.

7. The directors may receive in payment of any subscription for
stock in said company any property adapted to the construction,
operation or maintenance of said road, of which, by sale or ex-
change, they deem may be converted to the useof said road, or may
receive all or any part of such subscription in service, labor and
materials, and said board may contract for services, labor, supplies
or materials for the construction of said road or its appendages, or the
equipping, maintaining and operating of the same, and for property
which, or its proceeds, may be beneficial and useful to said company
In carrying out the objects of said company, and pay therefor, wholly
or partly, in the capital stock of the said company.

8. The directors shall have the power to issue bonds in sums of
one hundred dollars and multiples thereof, and bearing interest not
exceeding the rate of eight per centum per annum, the principal and
interest of which shall be payable at such times and places as the
board of directors may determine, and may secure the same by one
or more mortgages or deeds of trust on the road, franchises, incomes
and the real and personal and mixed property of the company, or
such part or parts thereof as may be designated in the mortgages or
deeds of trust, and may sell such bonds at such discount as may be
thought best for the benefit of the company, and the said board of
directors may confer on any bondholder the right to convert the
principal due or owing on such bonds into stock of said company at
any time.

9. This act shall be inoperative and shall be without force or
effect so long as the state of Virginia shall own any stock or dividend
obligations of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad
company.

10. The construction of the said road shall be commenced within
one year from the date at which the state of Virginia ceases to be
the owner of any stock or dividend obligations of the Richmond,
Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad company, and shall be com-
pleted within five years from such date: provided, further, that in
no event shall the beginning of the construction of the said road
be postponed longer than January first, eighteen hundred and
ninety-six.

11. This act shall be void and of no effect unless the Manassas and
Richmond railway company shall deposit with the commissioners of
the sinking fund, within the period of one hundred and twenty days
from the passage of this act, the sum of one hundred thousand dol-
lars of Virginia state bonds issued under the act approved February
twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two.

12. The aforesaid bonds, when so deposited, shall be and become
the property of the state of Virginia unless work is commenced upon
the railroad within the period prescribed in its charter, and also if
and in the event that not less than twenty miles of grading north-
wardly from Richmond be properly completed within twelve months
from the date of said commencementicf.the work; the board of pub-
lic works being hereby authorized to determine if and when said
twenty miles of grading northwardly from Richmond shall have
been properly completed.

13. The commissioners of the sinking fund shall permit the de-
positors of said bonds to draw the interest thereon as the same may
become due and payable until such time as the said bonds shall be
returned, or become the property of the state under the provisions
of this act: provided, however, that the said bonds shall be returned
to the depositors thereof in the event that work is commenced
within the time limited therefor, and also as a further and cumula-
tive condition, in the further event that twenty miles of the said
road has been properly graded northwardly from Richmond within
twelve months from the date of said commencement of the said
work, and the fact so certified to the commissioners of the sinking
fund by the board of public works of the state of Virginia.

14. If the work on said road be not commenced as provided herein,
and if the twenty miles of grading herein required to be completed
shall not be properly completed, as herein provided, to the satisfac-
tion of the board of public works, then, upon the certificate of the
last-named board, the commissioners of the sinking fund shall can-
cel said bonds, and this charter shall become absolutely void and of
no effect, without any proceeding by quo warranto or otherwise.

15. This act shall be in force from its passage.