Chap. 74.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 1145 of the code of Virginia,
as amended and re-enacted by an act entitled “An act to amend and re-enact
section 1145 of the code of Virginia as to how certain charters of incorpora-
tion granted, altered, or amended by circuit or corporation courts, and where
to be recorded ; validating all charters to build and operate railroads hereto-
fore granted by a circuit or corporation court, but forbidding said courts to

nt such charters in the future,” approved February 20, 1892, so as to
orbid courts and judges to grant charters of incorporation to fire insurance
companies or life insurance companies.

Approved January 17, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
one thousand one hundred and forty-five of the code of Virginia, as
amended and re-enacted by an act entitled “an act to amend and re-
enact section one thousand one hundred and forty-five of the code of
Virginia as to how certain charters of incorporation granted, altered,
or amended by circuit or corporation courts, and where to be re-
corded ; validating all charters to build and operate street railroads
heretofore granted by a circuit or corporation court, but forbidding
said courts to grant such charters in the future,” approved February
twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, “so as to forbid courts
and judges to grant charters of incorporation to fire insurance com-
panies or life insurance” companies, be amended and re-enacted so
as to read as follows:

§ 1145. How certain charters of incorporation granted, altered, or
amended by circuit or corporation courts, and where to be recorded ;
validating all charters to build and operate street railroads hereto-
fore granted byacircuit or corporation court, but forbidding said
courts to grant such charters in the future.—Any five or more persons
who shall desire to form a joint stock company for the conduct of
any enterprise or business, which may be lawfully conducted by an
individual or by a body politic or corporate, except to construct a
turnpike, to be constructed beyond the limits of the county, ora
railroad, or canal, or to establish a bank of circulation, or a fire in-
surance company, or life insurance company, may make, sign, and
acknowledge before any justice or notary, or county or corporation
judge, or clerk of a county, corporation, or circuit court, a certificate
in writing, setting forth the name of the company, the purposes
for which it is formed, the capital stock and its division into shares,
the amount of real estate proposed to be held by it, the place at
which its principal office is to be kept, the chief business to be
transacted, and the names and residences of the officers who
for the first year are to manage the affairs of the company.
This certificate may be presented to the circuit court of the
county, or the circuit or corporation court of the corporation,
wherein the principal office of the company is to be located, or to the
judge thereof in vacation. The said court, or judge in vacation, shall
have discretion to grant or refuse to said persons a charter of incor-
poration upon the terms set forth in the said certificate, or grant it
upon such other terms as may be adjudged reasonable. If the
charter be granted it shall be recorded by the clerk of the said court
in a book to be provided and kept for the purpose, and shall be cer-
tified by him to the secretary of the Commonwealth, to be in like
manner recorded in his office. Any charter heretofore or hereafter
granted to a company under the provisions of this section by a court,
or judge thereof in vacation, may be altered or amended, or the cor-
porate name of the company be changed by the said court, or the
judge in vacation, on the application of the company authorized by
a majority of the stockholders in general meeting. And any charter
heretofore or hereafter granted by the general assembly which, under
the provisions of this section, might have been granted by a court
or judge may in like manner and on like application be altered or
amended, or the corporate name of the company changed by the cir-
cuit court of the county or circuit, or corporation court of the cor-
poration wherein the principal office of the company is, or by the
judge of such court in vacation; such alteration or amendment or
change shall be recorded by said clerk and in the office of the secre-
tary of the commonwealth, as hereinbefore provided for recording
charters, and shall be as effectual and legal from that time as if
originally a part of said charter. Any charter heretofore granted
by a circuit or corporation court to build and operate a street rail-
road shall be deemed valid to all intents and purposes; but said
courts are hereby inhibited and forbidden to hereafter grant any
charters to build and operate street railroads. But nothing con-
tained in this section shall be held or construed as denying to any
building fund association, which has heretofore been organized and
incorporated under the act of May twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred
and fifty-two, and amendatory acts, all the rights, powers, privileges,
and franchises granted to and vested in such associations under
said acts. And it shall not be lawful for the general assembly’ to
grant relief, or to incorporate any company, or to alter or amend the
charter of any corporation, provision for which is made in this sec-
tion, unless application shall have been first made to some circuit or
corporation court, or the judge thereof in vacation, and refused;
provided that nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the
condemnation of lands by any street railroad company chartered by
the courts.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.