commodation in the transaction of its business; or, 2. Such as shall have been acquired for the accommodation of its business previous to the passage of this act; or, 3. Such as shall have been mortgaged to it in good faith, by way of security for loans previously contracted, or for moneys due; or, 4. Such as shall have been conveyed to it in satisfaction of debts previously contracted in the course of its dealings; or, and allow the jurors such reasonable ex- CHAP. 166. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, TO SUPPLY VA- Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of justice of the peace of any town in this State, the supervisor, town clerk, and remaining justices of the peace, or a majority of such officers, are hereby authorized by warrant under their hands and seals to appoint a suitable person to fill said vacancy, and the person so appointed shall hold said office until the next regular annual town meeting in said town, unless the said appointment shall have been made to fill the vacancy of an officer whose term of office would have expired on the thirty-first day of December next succeeding such appointment; in which case the term of office of the person so appointed shall expire on the 5. Such as shall have been purchased at sales upon judgments, decrees or mortgages obtained or made for such debts; and it shall not be lawful for any company incorporated as aforesaid to purchase, hold or convey real estate in any other case or for any other purpose; and all such real estate as may be acquired as aforesaid, and which shall not be necessary for the accommodation of such company in the convenient transaction of its business, or which shall not have been necessary for such purpose at the time of its acquisition, shall be sold and disposed of within five years after such company shall have acquired title to the same; and it shall not be lawful for such company to hold such real estate for a longer period than that above mentioned, thirty-first day of December next sucunless the said company should procure a certificate from the Superintendent of the Insurance Department that the interests of the company will suffer materially by a forced sale of such real estate, in which event the time for the sale may be extended to such time as the said Superintendent shall direct in said certificate. SEC 2. This act shall apply to all life insurance companies organized under any laws of this State. Amending Sec. 9, Chap. 463, Laws of 1853. Passed April 24, 1875. CHAP. 335. ceeding such appointment. And any person so appointed may at once qualify and enter upon the discharge of the duties of his office. Amending Sec. 1, Chap. 476 Laws of 1859. Passed April 24, 1875. CHAP. 518. MILITARY STATISTICS, BUREAU OF. IN- SECTION 1. Section one of chapter fiftyone of laws of eighteen sixty-four*, entitled "An act in relation to the Bureau of Military Statistics," is hereby amended JURORS IN PROTRACTED CASES, PAYMENT SO as to read as follows: § 1. The books, records and other property deposited in the Bureau of Military Statistics, shall be open to free inspection and use at all reasonable hours, but no book or article shall be taken there from. Passed June 7, 1875. *So in the law as engrossed and signed. CHAP. 251. PRISONERS CONFINED ON CIVIL PROCESS SUPPORT OF. SECTION 1. After January 1, 1875, the support of persons confined in the prisons or common jails of the county on writ or process in any civil action, etc., shall be a county charge. But the prisoner to entitle himself to such support shall make oath before the sheriff, jailor or deputy jailor (who are hereby empowered to administer oaths for such a purpose) that he is unable to support himself during the imprisonment. SEC. 2. The boards of supervisors of the counties of the State authorized to contract with the sheriff of the counties for the support of such persons, and a list under oath of the number and names of persons so supported, and the time of such support, shall be attested by the sheriff or jailor. SEC. 3. This act shall not repeal the provisions of law on the same subject for the Counties of Kings and Monroe. SEC. 4. This act shall apply to and include the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of New York, as now organized. Passed May 6, 1875. CHAP. 227. PUBLIC WORKS, INSPECTOR OF. SECTION 1. An Inspector of the Public Works shall be appointed by the Governor, who may remove him at his plea sure. SEC. 2. Such officer shall inspect all works in which the State has any interest; shall report to the Governor as often as the Governor shall call upon him, and the report shall be filed in the Executive Department and Auditor's Office, and be subject to public inspection. SEC. 3. Shall have power to inspect all such works, and examine books, accounts or papers relating thereto, in the custody of any public officer or board. SEC. 4. May require the attendance of any witness before him to be examined in relation to such works, whenever the Governor shall require it, and may take testimony and administer oaths; any willful or false swearing before him shall be perjury; may issue subpoenas, to be signed by him, and served by any sheriff or constable as he may require. Any person willfully neglecting to obey the subpoena, shall forfeit to the people of the State $250, and shall also be declared guilty of misdemeanor. The examination shall be public. SEC. 5. Compensation $5,000 annually, payable monthly, and he shall be reimbursed for actual expense incurred for clerk hire, compensation of experts, fees of witnesses, etc., in the discharge of his duties, on a sworn account audited by the Comptroller, the objects and amounts being subject to the approval, in writing, of the Governor and Comptroller. He shall make a full report of his proceedings to the Legislature on or before January 15 in each year. Passed April 30, 1875. CHAP. 598. RAILROAD CORPORATIONS. Any existing railroad company heretofore organized or incorporated under the laws of this State, except such as may have been organized for the purpose of constructing or operating a railroad in the City of New York, which may have been unable from any cause to construct its railroad within the time specified by its charter or articles of association, shall hereby have the time for the completion. of the railroad it was authorized to construct, extended for a further term of two years beyond the time heretofore road heretofore, shall not cause a forfeitlimited, and failure to construct its railure of its corporate powers; but nothing herein contained shall have the effect to revive any corporation whose corporate has been forfeited from any cause. power Pussed June 18, 1875. 82 107 82 130 84 138 86 55 88 120 Criminal Law.... The commissioners appointed by virtue of chapter thirty-three of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy to revise the statutes of this State are hereby authorized to incorporate in, and make part Gas Light Companies......... of such revision, the civil code, heretofore reported to the Legislature by the commissioners of the code, or so much thereof as the said commissioners for the revision of the statutes may deem advisable, with the same effect as though the said civil code were now a part of the statutes of this State. Passed June 7, 1875. CHAP. 545. Hay and Straw, Sale of....... 111 175 88 25 89 60 114 176 Insurance Cos. of other States.. 92 87 92 105 Pauper and Destitute Children, 117 173 § 67. When the purposes for which an express trust shall have been created shall have ceased, the estate of the trustees shall also cease. And where an estate has been conveyed to trustees for the benefit of creditors and no different Railways..... limitation is contained in the instrument creating the trust, such trust shall be Snow Drifts, Preventing...... 118 196 deemed discharged at the end of twenty-Soldiers' Monument Associat❜ns, 93 35 five years from the creation of the same; Specie Payments... and the estate conveyed to trustee or trustees and not granted or conveyed by State Census....... Literature.. him or them shall revert to the grantor Suppression of Vile and Obscene Passed June 7, 1875. Town Auditors.... 119 18 Taxes.. Determination of Common Council final and conclusive as to facts to be ascertained for the purpose of carrying on improvements. In 1868 a suit was commenced by a bill in Equity to close a partnership between the parties to this suit. In 1870 a decree was made directing the clerk to reform the account, (which had been reported), in certain particulars, and that, when so reformed, it should stand as the decree of the Court. In 1871, and before the decree had been performed, this action was commenced for the purpose of having the decree reviewed and corrected.. in the original cause then pending. appeal, Held, 1. That the original cause was still pending, and the plaintiff's remedy was by motion therein. 2. That upon payment of the costs, the Judge might have treated this proceeding as a motion in the original suit. The defendants demurred for cause, These and three other cases were ap- that the plaintiff's remedy was by motion peals from orders of General Term vacating an assessment for grading and paving Grand street in the City of Brooklyn. The objection to the regularity of the assessment was, that the petition presented to the Common Council, and upon which it authorized the work, was not signed by a majority of the owners "of land on the line of the contemplated improvement," as required by the Act under which the proceedings were instituted (Sec. 1, Chap. 149, Laws of 1861.) Held, That the provision of the Act of 1859 (Sec. 5, Chap. 213, Laws of 1859), making the determination of the Common Council as to all the facts to be ascertained for the purpose of commencing and carrying on improvements, whether a majority of such owners united in the petition, "final and conclusive," was not inconsistent with, and so was not repealed, 3. The cause will be remanded, that the parties may proceed as they are advised. And this opinion will be certified. Plaintiff to pay the costs of this Court, as he made no motion below to treat his action as a motion in the original suit. Long v. Cole, Covington et al. 72 No. Carolina, pp. 20-22. Opinion by Reade, J. NEY. by the Act of 1861, and that the Court BROKER-POWER In re pet. of Kiernan et al. to vacate assessment. N. Y. Court of Appeals, Sept. 21, 1875. Opinion by Church, C. J. BILL OF REVIEW. Not the proper remedy when the original suit is pending. Must proceed by motion. Bill of Review may be treated as such a motion. Costs. OF ATTOR One authorized by a power of attorney to do certain things in his discretion, with power of substitution, may substitute with a like discretion. Sale of stocks in a panic,though at less than the actual value, justified on an authority to sell when a margin is given. Balance due on sale of stocks carried on a margin ground for counter-claim against principal. This action was brought to recover damages for the sale by defendants, who were bankers and brokers in New York Civil action in the nature of a Bill of City, of a large amount of stocks and Review. Government bonds belonging to plain Wicks, applt. v. Hatch et al., respts. tiff. It appeared that plaintiff had exe- discretion with which defendants were cuted to her husband a power of attor- invested. ney, which vested him with the right to buy, sell and transfer, in his discretion, gold, stocks, &c., and to draw, execute and deliver "all orders, checks, or other instruments in writing, which shall or may, in his discretion, be necessary," &c., in the transaction of the business, which State law, passed after the contract is made, taking away the defense of usury from corporations does not impair the obligation of a contract, or destroy a vested right, or do great injury to the corporation. Action on the case for interest. The plaintiff in error was, in 1868, sued by the defendant here for the interest on its certificates of indebtedness. was the purchase and sale of stocks, on CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. USURY. speculation, with power of substitution in the usual form. Defendants, as brokers, pursuant to the directions of the husband, made large purchases of stock for plaintiff in their own name, upon which they advanced the entire costs beyond the amount deposited with them as a margin. During the transactions the husband executed a paper by which he authorized the defendants to sell, at their discretion, at public or private sale, or private sale, with- In June, 1873, a plea of usury was out notice, the stocks or gold they might tendered, which was, on motion of the be carrying for plaintiff, whenever the plaintiff (below), rejected, and an excepmargin should fall below five per cent. On May 22, 1873, the Legislature of The stocks having so far declined that plaintiff's margin fell below five per cent., Virginia enacted (R. Code of 1873, p. the defendants sold them, and after cred- 514) that "no corporation shall hereafter iting plaintiff's account with the pro-interpose the defense of usury in any ceeds of the sale, a balance remained due from her, for which defendants made a counter-claim. Held, That the power of attorney from plaintiff to her husband conferred upon him ample authority to perform all acts necessary to be done in the transaction of the business. The power of substitution, contained therein, authorized the employment of the defendants and the vesting them with the power to sell, without notice, at their discretion. That the balance unpaid was a proper subject of counter-claim. Also held, That although there was evidence to show that the fall in the price of some of the securities was caused by a panic, and not from any want of actual value, yet, as there was reason to apprehend still further depreciation, it was for the jury to say whether the sale was made in the exercise of that sound tion was taken. action; nor shall any bond, note, debt or contract of such corporation be set aside, impaired or adjudged invalid by reason of anything contained in the laws prohibiting usury." For the defendant (below) it was contended: 1. That the enactment applies only to causes arising and contracts made after its adoption. 2. That by the Code of 1860, Ch. 16, Sec. 18, it is provided that no new law shall be construed to repeal a former law, as to any act done, or right accrued, under the former law, or in any way whatever affect any act done, or right accrued, under the former law. 3. That the Act was in contravention of the Constitution of the United States, because— (a.) The law was ex-post facto. (b.) And impaired the obligation of a contract. |