LEADING AMERICAN RAILWAY CASES, ON MOST OF THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS INVOLVED IN THE LAW OF RAILWAYS, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO SUBJECTS. WITH NOTES AND OPINIONS BY ISAAC F. REDFIELD, LL.D. BEING A SUPPLEMENT TO THE AUTHOR'S WORK ON RAILWAYS. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1870. LIBRARY OF THE LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY. A28957 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by ISAAC F. REDField, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. PREFACE. THE author has endeavored to supply a need which has been felt to a considerable extent by the profession, throughout the country, and especially in the rural districts, remote from extensive Law Libraries, by publishing the Leading American Cases and Opinions upon most of the topics discussed in the Law of Railways, arranged according to subjects. He has also ventured to include some carefully prepared opinions of his own, both while connected with the courts and since. He has also given, in many cases, extended notes, which he trusts will not be without their use in aiding the profession to learn the present state of the law upon the points discussed. In most cases the head-notes have been made anew and much abbreviated, and the statements of the facts either wholly omitted or reduced to the smallest proportions consistent with a proper understanding of the cases. The opinions are given at length in the words of the judges, except where they discuss points not connected with the law of railways. It is not expected to supersede or abridge the use of the Reports, but only to furnish a convenient and reliable secondary means of supplying the defect, where those are not accessible. By this mode of condensation it has been practicable to give a very large number of very important opinions. The author feels some confidence in hoping that the volume will be found scarcely less useful than the two former ones on the Law of Railways. The volume will be found convenient and useful to those who may have access to the Reports, by bringing the Leading Opinions upon different topics connected with the Law of Railways into compact form and moderate space; and will be almost indispensable to those who have not convenient access to the Reports. BOSTON, December 20, 1869. I. F. R. ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. RECOVERY OF CORPORATION FOR SERVICES RENDERED IN PRO- I. Low v. Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railway, 45 New Hamp- 1. Volunteer services beneficial to the company, and accepted by them, the value to them may be recovered of the corporation in indebitatus assumpsit. 2. The contract will be governed by the law of the place where the corporation was 3. The practical operation of the rule of evidence in New Hampshire, excluding the 1. An agreement in respect to services as a lobby agent, or for the sale of personal in- 2. All such contracts are regarded as pernicious to the interests of morality, and op- III. Note upon the question of illegality in contracts; and the outlawry of property which is adapted to unlawful uses, with a view to be applied towards the accom- POWERS OF COMMISSIONERS IN ORGANIZING CORPORATIONS. p. 26. I. Walker v. Devereaux, 4 Paige's Reports, 239. 1. The act of incorporation does not create a corporation until the holders of the stock 2. The commissioners act as public officers, and may be compelled to perform their 3. An apportionment of stock to one not entitled to hold it is inoperative as to himself, 4. The party claiming to have suffered injury must join, in his bill for redress, all parties liable to be affected by the redistribution he claims. The commissioners |