An Act to amend and reenact § 46.1-299, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, relating to devices signalling intention to turn or stop and rules therefor.
Volume 1968 Law 99
Volume | 1901/1902 |
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Law Number | 340 |
Subjects |
Law Body
Chap. 340.—An ACT to incorporate The Middlebrook and Newport Railway and
Electric Company.
Approved March 28, 1902.
1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That W. W.
Sproul, J. Frank Clemmer, John H. Bowman, H. B. Sproul, T. M.
Smiley, W. C. Bosserman, Edward Echols, Richard Hogshead, and L. L.
Bowman, their associates, successors, and assigns, be, and they are hereby,
constituted and declared a body politic and corporate by the name and
style of The Middlebrook and Newport Railway and Electric Company,
with all the privileges and rights belonging or appertaining to corpora-
tions under the laws of this State, and by that name shall be known in
law, shall have perpetual succession, and power to contract and be con-
tracted with, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be
defended in all courts, whether in law or in equity, and may make, have,
and use a common seal, and the same break, alter, review, or change at
pleasure, and may make, ordain, establish, alter, and amend such by-laws,
ordinances, and regulations not herein specifically provided for as the
said company may think proper, and generally may do every and any act
and thing necessary to carry this act into effect, or to promote the objects
and designs of the corporation: provided, such by-laws, ordinances, regu-
lations, or acts be not inconsistent with the laws of the United States or
of the State of Virginia.
2. The capital stock of said company shall be ten thousand dollars,
divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, and said capital stock
may, from time to time, be increased by the board of directors to an
amount not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars.
3. It shall be lawful for any county, city, town, or individual to sub-
scribe to the capital stock of said company in the manner prescribed by
law.
4. The said The Middlebrook and Newport Railway and Electric Com-
any is hereby authorized and empowered to locate, construct, equip, and
operate a railroad or electric car line of standard gauge, with one or
more tracks, or a narrow gauge, with one er more tracks, from any point
it may select at, in, or near the city of Staunton, in Augusta county, in a
‘southerly or southwesterly direction, to a point at or near the village of
Newport, in said county, and thence to a point at or near the village of
Rockbridge Baths, in the county of Rockbridge, or to any intermediate
point it may select; to operate the same with steam, electricity, or other
mechanical power for the purpose of transporting passengers, freight,
baggage, or mails for compensation, and for such other uses and purposes
as railroad corporations are chartered to subserve in the State of Vir-
ginia; to establish or maintain on or near its line one or more electric
plants for the purposes of said road, and to erect and operate telegraph
and telephone lines along its route; and for the purposes mentioned in
this section it shall have the right to acquire any property or rights it
may need, either by purchase or by condemnation proceedings, such as
are authorized by the general laws of the State. And the said company
shall also have power along its line of railway to furnish electric current
for light, power, and heat.
5. The said company may construct, equip, maintain, and operate its
line or lines of railway over the streets and other public places of said
city and the roads and other public highways of said counties: provided,
the councils of said city and the boards of supervisors of said counties,
respectively, who are hereby vested with authority so to do, shall consent
to the location of the said line or lines of railway on the streets and high-
ways within the limits of their respective jurisdictions, subject to the
fee-simple rights of adjacent land owners.
6. Subject to the general laws of this State, it shall be lawful for the
said company to cross any other railroad, turnpike, or county road at.
grade, or over or under any other railroad, turnpike, or county road now
constructed or which may be hereafter constructed; to construct lateral
or branch roads not exceeding twenty miles cach in length, subject to the
same limitations and restrictions as the main line, but, as to gauge, may
be of such gauge as to the company seems best. It may unite its roads
with any other roads now in this State or that may hereafter be built;
may enter the grounds of such railroads with the necessary sidings,
switches, turn-outs, conveniences, and facilities as will aid in the further-
ance of the construction of said railroad, or facilitate the exchange of
handling passengers and freight between the said railroad and other rail-
roads, but in all cases in which the said railroad company shall subject
the real estate of any other company to its use, or acquire any of the
same, it shall be made in the mode prescribed by law.
?%. The said company shall have power to issue bonds, negotiable or
non-negotiable, with or without coupons, registered or non-registered, of
such denominations and for such amounts, and at such times and on
such terms, as the directors may deem expedient, and sell the same to
raise money for the purpose of carrying on its work and in the conduct
of its business, and for this purpose may borrow money in other usual
and lawful ways; and in order to secure the payment of any bonds or
securities it may issue, and to secure the repayment of anv money it may
so borrow, may execute mortgages or deeds of trust on its property, in-
cluding its chartered rights and franchises. And the said company may
receive as subscriptions to its capital stock money, labor, bonds, or other
personal property and real estate, and any other thing or things in which,
by the laws of the State, subscriptions to the capital stock of a corpora-
tion may be paid as may be agreed upon by the said company and the
subscribers, and said company may exchange its bonds for such property,
and any real estate so acquired by it may be held, improved, leased, mort-
gaged, and sold by the company in such manner as to it may seem best:
provided, that it shall not hold real estate not needed for the purposes of
its creation longer than a period of thirty vears from the time it is ac-
uired.
4 8. Subject to the laws of this State, the said railroad company may
consolidate, lease, purchase, and acquire the franchises, works, privileges,
and property of any other railroad company now existing or hereafter
built, not a parallel or competing line; and any railroad company here-
tofore incorporated in this State, the line of which connects with or will
connect with the railroad hereby incorporated and authorized to be con-
structed, or which lies along its route and could be utilized as a part of
this line, or in lieu of such branch road as this company may construct,
is hereby authorized to sell, to lease, convey its works, property, priv-
ileges, and franchises to said The Middlebrook and Newport Railway
and Electric Company on such terms as the stockholders of the respective
corporations shall agree: provided, that in such consolidated sale, or any
other manner, this corporation shall never lose its identity or cease to be
a domestic corporation, subject to the jurisdiction of the court and laws
of this State.
9. The incorporators named in this act shall be authorized to receive
subscriptions to the capital stock of the company, and they shall also con-
stitute the board of directors for the first year after the organization of
the company, and shall continue in office until their successors shall be
elected and qualified. They shall elect one of their number as president
of the board, and may appoint such other officers as they may deem
proper, and fix the salaries of the officers for the first year, subject, never-
theless, to any change in the same which may be made at a stockholders’
meeting regularly and lawfully called during the year. They shall have
power to fill any vacancy that may occur in the board or in the office of
its president. Whenever ten thousand dollars of the stock shall have
been validly and lawfully subscribed, said incorporators shall proceed to
organize the company by calling a general stockholders’ meeting for the
purpose, to be held in the city of Staunton, or at some other convenient
place in the county of Augusta, after publication of notice of the time
and place, when and where the same is to be held, in one or more of the
newspapers of the city of Staunton at least once a week for at least four
successive weeks, which stockholders’ meeting shall elect a president,
vice-president, and secretary and treasurer of the company; but, as
hereinafter stated, the incorporators herein named are to constitute the
board of directors for the first year and until their successors are elected
by the stockholders and duly qualified. Thereupon the said company
shall be considered legally organized, and, as hereinbefore stated, shall
have all the general powers, and shall be subject to all the restrictions
and provisions conferred and imposed upon corporations and chartered
companies by the laws of this State, save in so far as the same are modi-
fied by, or are inconsistent with, the provisions of this act.
10. The board of directors of this company are authorized, at any meet-
ing when a majority of the directors are present, to change the name of
this company.
11. All taxes which may be assessed against this company shall be pay-
able in lawful money of the United States, and not in coupons.
12. The construction of the railroad hereinbefore authorized shall be
begun within three years from the date of the passage of this act, and at
least five miles of its line shall be constructed and completed within five
vears from that date, and the remainder of its line shall be constructed
and completed within ten years from that date: provided, however, that
if said company may have commenced and completed a portion of its
356 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY.
line within the period hereinabove stated, then the existence and organi-
zation of the campany shall be valid and continuing as to the portion of
its line so completed, and its corporate rights and privileges shall cease
and determine only in respect to the portion of said line as to which de-
fault may have been made in commencing and completing the work
thereon.
13. This act shall be in force from its passage.