Chap. 101.—An ACT to incorporate the Mary F. Ballentine home for the aged.

Approved January 21, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That Thomas
R. Ballentine, C. W. Grandy, Caldwell Hardy, Walter H. Taylor,
George Tait, Joseph T. Allyn, J. W. Grandy, McDowell L. Wrenn, W.
W. Vicar, and J. G. Womble, and their successors, be, and they are
hereby, constituted and made a body politic and corporate, under the
name of “The Mary F. Ballentine home for the aged,” with all the
rights, powers, and privileges conferred, and subject to all the rules,
regulations, and restrictions prescribed under the laws of ‘this com-
monwealth now in force or which may hereafter be in force for the
government of such bodies corporate, so far as the same may be ap-
plicable to and not inconsistent with the provisione of this act.

2. The said corporation shall have the power to hold, manage, con-
trol, and regulate a home in either the city or county of Norfolk, in
this commonwealth, for the support and maintenance of aged or
infirm white persons, both men and women, to be selected from time
to time by the board of trustees, as hereinafter provided, from the
residents or inhabitants of the said city of Norfolk, and of the county
of Currituck, in the state of North Carolina; provided, however,
that there shall not, at any one time, be more than four such aged
or infirm persons in the said home, selected from the residents or
inhabitants of the said county of Currituck; and provided, further,
that any such aged or infirm persons who may be related by blood to
the said Thomas R. Ballentine, down to and inclusive of second
cousins, may be selected without reference to their residence at the
time of such selection, and that the wife of the said Thomas R. Bal-
lentine, if she should survive her said husband, shall, with the ap-
proval of the said board of trustees, be permitted to make her home
at the said institution.

3. The said corporation shall have power to take and hold, by gift,
purchase, devise, bequest, or otherwise, property, real, personal, and
mixed, and to enjoy, invest, sell, transfer, and convey the same, or
any part thereof, for its use and benefit; provided, however, that
there shall be expended in caring for the inmates of the said home
only the interest or income of the estate, real or personal, which may
be derived under the will of the said Thomas R. Ballentine, the
principal of which shall be kept intact at all times, with power to
sell and re-invest the proceeds thereof in other property, real or per-
sonal; and provided, further, that the real estate in the said city of
Norfolk owned by the said corporation shall not, at any one time, be
more than twenty-five acres.

4. The persons named in the first section of this act shall consti-
tute the first board of trustees of the said corporation, and if any of
them shall, for any reason, fail or refuse to accept the position of
trustee, those who do accept shall fill any vacancy so caused, as
hereinafter provided, in case of other vacancies. The said trustees,
respectively, shall hold office during life, or until they resign or be
removed, or their office be declared vacant in pursuance of the terms
of this act.

The said board of trustees shall have full power and authority to
manage and control the said home, and also the affairs of the said
corporation. They shall have full power and authority to admit or
reject applicants for admission to the said home; to adopt rules,
regulations and by-laws for its government, and enforce them, and
change or alter the same at their pleasure; and to manage all
the affairs of the home, financial or otherwise: provided, however,
that the said home shall be at all times non-sectarian, and shall not
be managed in the interest of any religious denomination or sect.
They shall also have power to elect such officers, from their own
number, and employ such agents, as they may deem proper, for the
management and control of the affairs of the said corporation ; to
require of any of said officers or agents bonds, in such penalty as
they may prescribe, for the faithful discharge of their duties as
such; to fill vacancies in their board which may occur by death,
resignation or otherwise, and declare vacancies therein by reason of
non-attendance, or for other cause which shall seem to them proper ;
to provide a common seal; and to make such by-laws for their own
government, or for the management, transfer, or conveyance of the
corporate property as may be necessary or proper.

5. The said buard of trustees shall annually, at the end of each
fiscal year, make to the court of law and chancery of the city of Nor-
folk a report of its transaction of the previous year and of the finan-
cial condition of the said corporation, which report the said court
shall examine and act on as required by law in the case of fiducia-
ries. It shall also report any vacancies which may have occurred in
the said board, and how the same have been filled. The said court
shall at all times have full power to inquire into the affairs of the
said corporation, and by its orders and decrees enforce proper ac-
countability on the part of the said board of trustees, or of any of
its officers or agents, and to remove any trustee for malfeasance or
misfeasance; and in any case in which there shall be a tie vote
upon any question before the said board, it shall be the duty of the
clerk or secretary of the said board to certify that fact to the judge
of the said court of law and chancery, who shall thereupon attend
the meeting of the said board, and the vote of the said board shal]
be again taken upon such question, and if again there be a tie, it
shall be the duty of the said judge to give the casting vote, and
thereby decide such question.

6. If at any time the said board of trustees shall become entirely
vacant, the said court of law and chancery of the city of Norfolk, or
the judge thereof in vacation, shall have power to appoint a board
of trustees, to be composed of ten members, who shall be residents
and freeholders of the city of Norfolk, and the said board of trustees
so appointed shall be substituted toall the rights, powers, duties and
responsibilities of the said board of trustees provided for in this act.

7. This act may be amended or altered at the pleasure of the gene-
ral assembly, except as to the name and general objects of the cor-
poration created.

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