APPENDIX. INSURANCE COMPANIES. COUNTY FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES. An Act to provide for the organization and management of county fire insurance companies. [Approved April 1, 1897.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Any number of persons, not less than twentyfive, residing in any county in this State, owning insurable property aggregating not less than fifty thousand dollars in value, which they desire to have insured, may incorporate for the purpose of mutual insurance against loss or damage by fire. SEC. 2. Such persons shall file with the Insurance Commissioner a declaration of their intention to incorporate for the purposes expressed in section one of this Act, which declaration shall be signed by all of the incorporators, and shall contain a copy of the articles of incorporation proposed to be adopted. The Insurance Commissioner shall examine the proposed articles of incorporation, and, if they conform to this Act, he shall deliver to such persons a certificate permitting them to incorporate as such insurance company. Such certificate shall be directed to the Clerk of the county in which such corporation is proposed to be organized, and shall contain a copy of the proposed articles of incorporation. Upon filing with the Secretary of State the certified copies of the duly executed articles of incorporation, as required by section two hundred and ninety of the Civil Code of the State of California, and of the certificate above provided for, the Secretary of State shall thereupon issue a certificate of incorpora tion to such county insurance company, and, upon organizing under such articles of incorporation, such county fire insurance company may carry on a fire insurance business as hereinafter provided. The articles of incorporation and the charter or certificate obtained by any county fire insurance company operating under the provisions of this Act shall be subject to the control and modification by the Legislature of the State of California. The by-laws and all amendments thereto shall be filed with the Insurance Commissioner within sixty (60) days after their adoption. SEC. 3. The number of directors shall not be less than seven (7), nor more than eleven (11), a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum to do business. These directors shall be elected from the members of the association by ballot, and shall hold office for one year, or until their successors are elected and qualified. The annual meeting of the members of the company shall be on the second Monday in January of each year. In the election of the first board of directors each member shall be entitled to one vote. At every subsequent election, every person insured shall be entitled to as many votes as there are directors to be elected, and an equal additional number for every risk or risks he holds in the company, and he may cast the same in person or by proxy, distributing them among the directors to be elected, or among a less number of directors, or cumulating them upon one candidate, as he shall see fit. SEC. 4. The directors shall elect, from their own number, a president and a vice-president, and shall also elect a treasurer and a secretary, who may or may not be members of the company. All of such officers hold their office for one year from the date of their election, and until their successors are elected and qualified. SEC. 5. The treasurer and secretary shall give bonds to the company for the faithful performance of their duties, in such amounts as shall be prescribed by the board of directors. SEC. 6. Such corporation and its directors shall possess the usual powers, and be subject to the usual duties of corporations and directors thereof, and may make such by-laws, not inconsistent with the Constitution and the laws of this State, as may be deemed necessary for the management of its affairs, in accordance with the provisions of this Act. Also to pre |