CHAP. XX. certificates. ments required by this section shall be renewed from year to Annual year in such manner and form as may be required by said statements. Superintendent, with an additional statement of the amount of premiums received and losses incurred in this state during the preceding year, so long as such agency continues; and Renewal the said Superintendent, on being satisfied that the capital, securities and investments remain secure, as herein before provided, shall furnish a renewal of his certificate, as aforesaid, and the agent or agents obtaining such certificate, shall file a certified copy of the same in the office of the clerk of the county in which such agency shall be established, within the month of January; the fees for each certificate of authority and certified copy thereof shall be five dollars. But any company organized under or incorporated by any foreign government may furnish and file such annual statements and evidences in the month of January in each year, made out for the year ending on the preceding thirtieth day of June if accompanied also by an annual supplementary statement, duly verified by the attorney or general agent of the company in this state showing the amount of risks written, premiums received, losses sustained, and taxes paid in this state for the year ending on the preceding thirty-first day of December, said supplementary statement shall also contain a description of the investments of such company in this country; and such other information as may be required by the said Superintendent. Any violation of any of the provisions of this Penalties section shall subject the party violating to a penalty of five hundred dollars for each violation, and of the additional sum of one hundred dollars for each month during which any such agent shall neglect to make such publication or to file such affidavits and statements as are herein required. Every agent business. of any fire insurance company shall, in all advertisements of such agency, publish the location of the company, giving the name of the city, town or village in which the company is located, and the state or government under the laws of which it is organized. The term agent or agents, used in this section, shall include an acknowledged agent or surveyor, or any other person or persons, who shall, in any manner, aid in transacting the insurance business of any insurance company not incorporated by the laws of this state. The provisions of this section shall apply to all foreign companies, partnerships, associations and individuals, whether incorporated or not. Thus amended by Laws of 1862, ch. 367. Post, p. 256; 24 How. P. Place of er to ap persons to $ 24. It shall be the duty of the comptroller, whenever he Comptrollshall deem it expedient so to do, to appoint one or more per-point one sons, not officers of any fire insurance company doing busi-ormone ness in this state, to examine into the affairs of any fire insu- make exrance company incorporated in this state, or doing business by its agents in this state; and it shall be the duty of the officers or agents of any such company doing business in this aminations. PART I. the result. Proceed ings after investiga. tion. state to cause their books to be opened for the inspection of the person or persons so appointed, and otherwise to facilitate such examination so far as it may be in their power to do; and for that purpose the comptroller, or person or persons so appointed by him, shall have power to examine, under oath, the officers and agents of any company relative to the busiTo publish ness of said company; and whenever the comptroller shall deem it for the interest of the public so to do, he shall publish the result of such investigation in one or more papers in this state; and whenever it shall appear to the comptroller, from such examination, that the assets of any company incorporated in this state are insufficient to justify the continuance in business of any such company, he may direct the officers thereof to require the stockholders to pay in the amount of such deficiency within such period as he may designate in such requisition, or he shall communicate the fact to the attorney-general, whose duty it shall then become to apply to the supreme court for an order requiring them to show cause why the business of such company should not be closed, and the court shall thereupon proceed to hear the allegations and proofs of the respective parties; and in case it shall appear to the satisfaction of said court that the assets and funds of said company are not sufficient, as aforesaid, or that the interests of the public so require, the said court shall decree a dissolution of said company and a distribution of its effects. The supreme court shall have power to refer the application of the attorney-general to a referee, to inquire into and report upon the facts stated therein. Any company, receiving the aforesaid requisition from the comptroller, shall forthwith call upon its stockholders for such amounts as will make its capital equal to the amount fixed by the charter of said company; and in case any stockholder of said company shall refuse or neglect to pay the amount so called for, after notice personally given or by advertisement, in such time and manner as the comptroller shall approve, it shall be lawful for the said company to require the return of the original certificate of stock held by such stockholder, and in lieu thereof to issue new certificates for such number of shares as the said stockholder may be entitled to in the proportion that the ascertained value of the funds of the said company may be found to bear to the original capital of the said company; the value of such shares for which new certificates shall be issued to be ascertained under the direction of the comptroller, and the company paying for the fractional parts of shares; and it shall be lawful for the directors of such company to create new stock and dispose of the same, and to issue new certificates therefor, to an amount sufficient to make up the original Liability of capital of the company. And it is hereby declared that in the event of any additional losses accruing upon new risks, taken after the expiration of the period limited by the comptroller in the aforesaid requisition for the filling up of the Power of the court. Calls may be made on stockhold ers. directors. CHAP. XX deficiency in the capital of such company, and before said deficiency shall have been made up, the directors shall be individually liable to the extent thereof. And if, upon such examination, it shall appear to the comptroller that the assets of any company chartered on the plan of mutual insurance under this act are insufficient to justify the continuance of such company in business, it shall be his duty to proceed in relation to such company in the same manner as is herein required in regard to joint stock companies; and the trustees or directors of such company are hereby made personally liable for any losses which may be sustained upon risks taken after the expiration of the period limited by the comptroller for filling up the deficiency in the capital, and before such deficiency shall have been made up. Any transfer of the Transfer of stock of any company organized under this act, made during the pending of any such investigation, shall not release the party making the transfer from his liability for losses which may have accrued previous to the transfer. And whenever Foreign it shall appear to the comptroller, from the report of the person or persons appointed by him, that the affairs of any company not incorporated by the laws of this state are in an unsound condition, he shall revoke the certificates granted in behalf of such company, and shall cause a notification thereof to be published in the state paper for four weeks; and the agent or agents of such company is, after such notice, required to discontinue the issuing of any new policy, and the renewal of any previously issued. 5 Ab, 444; 40 B, 500. stock. companies be sued for. $25. Every penalty provided for by this act shall be sued Penalty to for and recovered in the name of the people, by the district attorney of the county in which the company or the agent or agents so violating shall be situated, and one-half of said penalty, when recovered, shall be paid into the treasury of said county, and the other half to the informer of such violation; and in the case of the non-payment of such penalty, the party so offending shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months, in the discretion of any court having cognizance thereof. Such penalties may also be sued for and recovered in the name of the people by the attorneygeneral, and when sued for and collected by him shall be paid into the state treasury. So amended by Laws of 1862, ch. 367. Post, p. 256. charter. $26. All companies incorporated or extended under this Duration of act may provide, in their charters, for not more thirty years' duration; but the Legislature may at any time alter, amend or repeal this act, and provide for the closing up of the business and affairs of any company formed under it. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent subsequent extensions of the charters of companies organized or extended under this act. PART I. Fees to be paid. Act of April 1849, pealed. $27. There shall be paid by every association, company or agent, to whom this act shall apply, the following fees, to be appropriated towards paying the expenses of executing said act: For filing the declaration required by the third section, the certified copy of the charter required by the twenty-third section, or the papers required by the eighteenth or nineteenth sections, the sum of twenty dollars; for filing the annual statement, five dollars; for every certificate of agency, one dollar. And all declarations, charters or other papers relating to fire and inland navigation insurance companies, now on file in the office of the secretary of state, shall be transferred to the office of the comptroller, who shall furnish, on payment of the usual fees, all certificates in relation thereto, as if the same had been originally filed in his office. Every county clerk shall demand and receive, for every paper filed in his office under this act, the sum of ten cents, to be accounted for and paid over to the county treasury, as provided by law with regard to other fees. $28. So much of the act entitled "An act to provide for 10led, re- the incorporation of insurance companies," passed April 10th, 1849, as relates to fire and inland navigation insurance, is Exception. hereby repealed; but such appeal shall not affect or apply to any company or association, which, at the date of the passage of the said act of June 25th, 1853, had filed in the office of the secretary of state, the declaration provided for by the third section of the aforesaid act of April 10, 1849. Act to take effect &c. Companies subject to taxation. So amended by Laws of 1853, ch. 528. $29. This act shall take effect immediately; except that those companies whose officers or agents have complied with the law of eighteen hundred and forty-nine, in making and publishing their respective statements, shall be permitted to continue to transact the business of insurance, without further statement, until the thirty-first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-four. CHAP. 469. AN ACT to amend the general law relative to the incorporation of insurance companies. PASSED June 29, 1853. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: 1. Any mutual life insurance company in this state, incorporated previously to the passage of the general insurance law on the tenth day of April, eighteen hundred fortynine, shall be subject to taxation in the same manner as if it were incorporated under said general law, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars as required by the sixth section of the said general law. 20 B., 86. CHAP. XX. CHAP. 528. AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act to provide for the incorporation of fire insurance companies," passed June 25, 1853. PASSED July 13, 1853. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: amended. $1. The twenty-eighth section of the act entitled "An act Section to provide for the incorporation of fire insurance companies," passed June 25, 1853, is hereby amended, &c. See that act ante. Companies, $2. Any persons who have heretofore filed a declaration, how formed or commenced the publication of a notice of their intentions to form any joint stock fire insurance company, under the act entitled "An act to provide for the incorporation of insurance companies," passed April 10, 1849, may proceed to organize such companies under the act entitled "An act to provide for the incorporation of fire insurance companies," passed June 25, 1853, without filing any new declaration of intention, or publishing any new notice. CHAP. 224. AN ACT to enlarge the powers and duties of trustees in certain cases. PASSED April 14, 1854. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: trustees. $1. Whenever any insurance company or corporation shall Powers of have made an assignment of its property and effects to any person or persons, in trust for the benefit of all its creditors, and such trust shall from any cause have become vested in the supreme court, the person or persons appointed by the said court for the purpose of executing such trust shall have and possess all the powers and authority conferred, and be subject to all the obligations and duties imposed, in article third, title four, part third and chapter eight of the Revised Statutes, upon receivers appointed in case of the voluntary dissolution of a corporation; and shall, in addition thereto, have and possess the same power and authority conferred, and be subject to the same duties and obligations imposed upon receivers in certain cases, by the act entitled "An act |