CORPORATIONS-Continued.

PAGE.

8. The courts will, as a general rule, presume that contracts made by a corporation which appear to be designed to promote its legitimate and profitable operation, are within the limits of its powers, and if their validity be assailed will require the assailant to assume the burden of demonstrating that fact. Id.......... 217

9.

10.

11.

12.

The General Corporation act gives general powers to all corporations organized under the laws of New Jersey; the certificate of incorporation required by that act is the charter of the company, and the equivalent of a special act of the legislature before the amendments to the constitution. Id..............

..............

Corporations organized under the general law are vested with the powers conferred by the general act, and those contemplated by the certificate, and such incidental powers with respect of the general and special powers, as are necessary, in the sense of convenient, reasonable and proper. Id..........

While the act permits incorporation for "any lawful business or purpose whatsoever," and the law gives all necessary powers thereto, it does not recognize as embraced therein powers to do those things which would deprive the corporation of its ability to carry out the objects for which it was formed, or discharge any duties which it might under its charter owe to the public, or which are contrary to the policy of the law. Id..............

The doctrine of ultra vires ought to be reasonably, and not unreasonably, understood and applied, and whatever may be fairly regarded as incidental to, and consequential upon, those things which are authorized by the charter of the company, ought not (unless expressly prohibited) to be held by judicial construction to be ultra vires. Id........

217

217

217

.......... 217

13. A corporation having power to take and dispose of the securities of another corporation may guarantee their payment if it disposes of them to another party in payment of its own debt; it it buys property subject to a mortgage securing bonds, it may guarantee the payment thereof if said guarantee is taken as payment pro tanto of its debt; the two transactions are the same in result, and mere routine of action cannot affect validity. Id ...........

14.

15.

217

A covenant by parties selling the plant and business of stockyards not to engage in the business for a certain number of years, nor in the place where they are located, or within two hundred miles thereof, is not unreasonable, and not an illegal restraint of trade. Id.. 217

A corporation duly organized under the tenth section of the act concerning corporations, as amended by the act of February 29th,

CORPORATIONS—Continued.

16.

17.

PAGE.

1888 (P. L. of 1888 p. 112), is entitled to the same right of access to, and examination of, the public records of the county as an individual would be. WEST JERSEY TITLE AND GUARANTY Co. v. BARBER.. 474

When employed to examine the title to any particular piece of property, such corporation is subrogated to the right of its employer to have such access, and the fact that it contemplates making a contract of guaranty of the title to the land in question does not detract from such right of access. Id...........

The allegation of insolvency, made with respect to a railway corporation in a bill for a receiver, is sustained by proof that the corporation had acquiesced in the construction of its road-bed by a companion corporation, which had either paid for or pledged its own credit for the cost of such construction, and that debts honestly due and owing therefor were outstanding and suits pending that the defendant corporation had neither means nor prospects of settling. TUCKAHOE &c. Rr. Co. v. BAKER........

474

581

COSTS-1. Where the volume of evidence taken before a master is swelled by testimony taken by the prevailing party, which is unimportant or irrelevant or taken with needless prolixity, the court, in awarding costs in his favor, will disallow the costs and expenses of taking and printing such testimony. YARD v. OCEAN BEACH ASSN. 306

2. A complainant, whose suit has been stayed by order until he files security for costs, does not relieve himself from the stay, so as to put the defendant in default for not pleading, by simply filing security, but, to place the defendant in a position where time will run against him, the complainant must, in addition to filing security, give notice that security has been filed. SOUTHERN NATIONAL BANK v. DARLING........

3.- Where the contest is as to which of two persons shall be ap-
pointed an administrator, the costs of the litigation should, as a gen-
eral rule, be imposed on the parties or on one of them, and not on
the estate.
CRAMER . SHARP...

4.

Costs and expenses of suit paid out of commingled funds in the hands of the wife's executors, complainants in the action. Cox v. WILLS..

See CONTEMPT, 4; EVIDENCE, 4.

COUNSEL FEES-See ALIMONY; EVIDENCE, 10.

CROSS-BILL-In order to give affirmative relief to a defendant, there

must be a cross-bill, or an answer in the nature of one. v. ASPINWALL..

398

563

573

ASPINWALL

302

DAMAGES-See DOWER, 2.

D.

PAGE.

DEATH-The statutory presumption of death of a person will not arise
until all reasonable doubt of his death, at a given time, is removed.
As to when such person was last heard from, the testimony of those
who knew him, and especially relatives or members of the same fam-
ily, is entitled to much greater weight than the testimony of those
who did not know him, but had simply heard of him. SMITH v.
COMBS...

DECREE--See FORECLOSURE, 2.

DEED-See CONSIDERATION, 2-5; HUSBAND AND WIFE, 4, 6.

DEVISE AND LEGACY-1. When a legacy is given to a creditor
of the testatrix equal to or exceeding the amount of the debt, the pre-
sumption is that it was intended to be a discharge of the debt; but
slight circumstances, such as a direction to pay debts, or any in-
equality between the gift and the debt, or imposition of any condition
unfavorable to the creditor, or any want of similitude between the
gift and the debt, will be laid hold of to overcome the presumption.
DEICHMAN v. Arndt...

2.

3.

1.

5.

6.

420

106

Gift.—The gift of goods and chattels of uncertain value will not
be regarded as having been intended to satisfy the debt. Id............ 106

Presumption.-Nor will the devise of land be presumed to have
been made in discharge of a bond secured by a mortgage on lands
devised. Id.................

If the estate which the trustee has in charge, or any branch of
it, be unadministered, so that the rights of the legatees or devisees
are unascertained or uncertain, so that a suit in equity or an action
at law will not lie therefor, it does not become the trustee to charge
such legatee or devisee unless it can be shown affirmatively that the
legatee or devisee has, with a full knowledge of all the facts and an
understanding of his rights, ratified the neglect of the trustee. BECH-
TOLD v. READ..........................

Legatees or devisees who are interested in having land dis-
charged of a burden may call executors to account, but they are not
obliged to do so in order to protect themselves against the charge of
laches by such executors. Id............................

Vested interest.-Where lands are devised to trustees with direc
tions to apply the rents and profits to the support of the testator's

106

111

111

DEVISE AND LEGACY-Continued.

7.

8.

PAGE.

widow and children, and with the further direction to sell the same
at the expiration of ten years after his death, and to divide the pro-
ceeds amongst his children and his widow, but in case of the remar-
riage of his widow, then to pay her a certain sum in cash in lieu of
her equal interest, the legatees take a vested interest. HUBER v.
DONOGHUE.....

125

A devise of land, "to be valued at $90 per acre," amounts
merely to giving to the devisee the option of purchasing from the
residuary beneficiaries at the price named. WYCKOFF v. WYCKOFF. 344

Testator devised certain tracts of land to his sons and son-in-
law, "to be valued at $90 an acre." He then directed that his execu-
tors, who were the three devisees, should each pay an annuity of $70
to the widow in lieu of dower.-Held, that the devisees took the
land charged with the annuity.

Id.............

344

9.

The charge on the land in such case is not affected by the fact
that sufficient personal estate was left to pay the annuity. Id..

344

DIRECTORS-See CORPORATIONS, 3, 5, 7.

DIVORCE-A husband who, without justifiable cause, separates him-
self from his wife, and neglects to provide for her such a support and
maintenance as this court shall adjudge, “that the nature of the case
and the circumstances of the parties render suitable and proper," is
guilty of "refusing and neglecting to maintain and provide for her"
in the sense in which those words are used in the twentieth section
of the act concerning divorces. O'BRIEN v. O'BRIEN..........
See HUSBAND AND WIFE, 4; MAINTENANCE.

DOMICILE-See PERSONAL PROPERTY.

DOWER-1. Until dower is assigned, the right of a widow in the land
of her husband is a mere chose in action. POLLITT v. KERR........

2.

At law, if the demandant in an action of dower dies before judg-
ment of seizin is executed, her right to an estate in dower is deter-
mined; if before the damages are assessed, her right to damages is
gone. Id................

436

65

65

E.

EASEMENT-1. It would seem that an easement cannot be, in this
state, imposed on land by the force of parol evidence. LAWRENCE v.
SPRINGER

289

EASEMENT-Continued.

2.

3.

PAGE.

A license executed at the expense of the licensee will not have
that effect. Id...........................................

289

289-

Even in jurisdictions in which such a doctrine prevails it must
be shown that the damage to a licensee by a revocation of the license
would be both considerable and irreparable. Id...................
ELECTION-1. Where lands are devised to trustees with directions to
apply the rents and profits to the support of the testator's widow and
children, and with the further direction to sell the same at the expira-
tion of ten years after his death, and to divide the proceeds amongst
his children and his widow, but in case of the remarriage of his
widow, then to pay her a certain sum in cash in lieu of her equal
interest, the legatees take a vested interest. HUBER v. Donoghue.. 125-

2.

3.

In such case the legatees may elect to take the lands in lieu of
the proceeds of the sale, and filing their bill asking for a sale of the
lands and the determination of the trust is such an election. Id...... 125

Being thus entitled, and all being sui juris, they may ask the
aid of the court to declare the trust determined and for a sale of the
lands before the expiration of the ten years. Id

EQUITABLE MORTGAGE-See WILLS, 5.

EQUITABLE RELIEF-A bill by a judgment creditor stated that
the defendant in the judgment had transferred the greater part of his
property to various persons in fraud of creditors, and had also, for the
same purpose, made a statutory assignment for the benefit of credit-
The special prayer for relief was, that all these transfers, as well
as the assignment, should be set aside.-Held, that such assignment
should be retained, if such course was more beneficial to creditors.
Such a bill is not demurrable. DAVIS v. WHITE........
See JURISDICTION.

ors.

ESTOPPEL-Where a defendant, in an action at law, offers to prove

an estoppel in pais against the plaintiff, and the offer is overruled by
the trial court, on the ground that the defence is not cognizable in
such action, and the defendant takes no exception but acquiesces in
such ruling as the law of the case, he is not estopped from filing a bill
in a court of equity setting up the same facts, to enjoin the enforce-
ment of a judgment obtained against him, in the said action. BORCH-
ERLING v. RUCKELSHAUS.

EVIDENCE-1. There is no difference between the character of the
evidence or the degree of proof required to sustain title by adverse
possession against the board of proprietors and that which is required
to sustain such title against an individual owner. YARD v. OCEAN
BEACH ASSN....

125

567

340

306-