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unless it be suspended by a chain and weight equally balanced, so as to require manual force to raise and lower such gate; and every turnpike company violating this provision, shall forfeit five dollars for every twenty-four hours such gate shall remain erected, to any person who will prosecute for the same, not being a director, stockholder or agent of such company.*

II. GENERAL ACT FOR THE

INCORPORATION OF PLANK

ROAD AND TURNPIKE-ROAD COMPANIES.

53. Corporation, how to be created.

(Laws of 1847, ch. 210.)

SECTION 1. Any number of persons not less than five, may be formed into a corporation, for the purpose of constructing and owning a plank road, or a turnpike road, by complying with the following requirements: Notice shall be given in at least one newspaper, printed in each county through which said road is intended to be constructed, of the time and place or places where books for subscribing to the stock of such road will be opened; and when stock to the amount of at least five hundred dollars for every mile of the road so intended to be built, shall be in good faith subscribed, then the said subscribers may, upon due and proper notice, elect directors for the said company; and thereupon, they shall severally subscribe articles of association, in which shall be set forth the name of the company, the number of years that the same is to continue, which shall not exceed thirty years from the date of said articles; whether it is a plank road or a turnpike, which the company is formed to construct; the amount of the capital stock of the com

* Laws of 1819, p. 308, § 4; Act concerning the Revised Statutes, passed December 10th, 1828, § 15.

pany; the number of shares of which the said stock shall consist; the number of directors, and their names, who shall manage the concerns of the company for the first year, and shall hold their offices until others are elected; the place from and to which the proposed road is to be constructed; and each town, city or village into or through which it is intended to pass, and its length, as near as may be. Each subscriber to such articles of association, shall subscribe thereto his name and place of residence, and the number of shares of stock taken by him in said company. The said articles of association may, on complying with the provisions of the next section, be filed in the office of the secretary of state, and thereupon, the persons who have so subscribed, and all persons who shall from time to time, become stockholders in such company, shall be a body corporate, by the name specified in such articles, and shall possess the powers and privileges, and be subject to the provisions contained in titles three and four of chapter eighteen of the first part of the Revised Statutes. [Thus amended by Laws of 1849, ch. 250.]

54. Articles of association, when to be filed.

$2. Such articles of association shall not be filed in the office of the secretary of state, until five per cent on the amount of the stock subscribed thereto, shall have been actually and in good faith paid, in cash, to the directors named in such articles, nor until there is indorsed thereon, or annexed thereto, an affidavit made by at least three of the directors named in such articles, that the amount of capital stock required by the first section has been subscribed, and that five per cent on the amount has actually been paid in.

55. Copy to be evidence.

§ 3. A copy of any articles of association filed in pur

suance of this act with a copy of the affidavit aforesaid indorsed thereon or annexed thereto, and certified to be a copy by the secretary of this state or his deputy, shall in all courts and places be presumptive evidence of the incorporation of such company, and of the facts therein. stated.

56. Company to make application to supervisors. §4. Whenever any such company shall be desirous to construct a plank road or turnpike road through any part of any county, it shall make application to the board of supervisors in such county at any meeting thereof legally held, for authority to lay out and construct such road, and to take the real estate necessary for such purpose; and the application shall set forth the route and charter of the proposed road as the same shall have been described in the articles of association filed as aforesaid. Public notice of the application shall be given by the company previous to presenting the same to such board by publishing such notice once in each week for six successive weeks in all the public newspapers printed in such county, or in three of such newspapers if more than three are published in such county, which notice shall specify the time when such application will be presented to such board, the character of the proposed road, and each town, city and village in or through which it is proposed to construct the same.

57. Special meeting of supervisors.

§ 5. If such company shall desire a special meeting of the board of supervisors for hearing the same, any three members of such board may fix the time of such meeting, and a notice thereof shall be served on each of the other supervisors of the county, by delivering the same to him personally or by leaving it at his place of residence at least twenty days before the day appointed for

such meeting. The expenses of such special meeting and of notifying the members of such board thereof, shall be paid by such company.

58. Owners of land may be heard.

§ 6. Upon the hearing of the said application, all persons residing in such county or owning real estate in any of the towns through which it is proposed to construct such road, may appear and be heard in respect thereto. Such board may take testimony in respect to such application, or may authorize it to be taken by any judicial officer of such county, and it may adjourn the hearing from time to time.

59. Application, when to be assented to.

§ 7. If after hearing such application such board shall be of the opinion that the public interest will be promoted by the construction of such road on the proposed route as shall be described in the application, it may, if a majority of all the members elected to such board shall assent thereto, by an order to be entered in its minutes, authorize such company to construct such a road upon the route specified in the application, and to take the real estate necessary to be used for that purpose, a copy of which order certified by the clerk of such board the said company shall cause to be recorded in the clerk's office of such county before it shall proceed to do any act by virtue thereof.

60. Commissioners to be appointed to lay out road,

§ 8. Whenever any such board shall grant such an application, it shall appoint three disinterested persons who are not the owners of real estate in any town through which such road shall be proposed to be constructed, or in any town adjoining such town, commissioners to lay

out such road; the said commissioners after taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution shall proceed without unnecessary delay to lay out the route of such road in such manner as in their opinion will best promote the public interest; they shall hear all persons interested who shall apply to them to be heard, they may take testimony in relation thereto, they shall cause an accurate survey and description to be made of such route and of the land necessary to be taken by such company for the construction of such road and the necessary buildings and gates, they shall subscribe such survey and acknowledge its execution as the execution of deeds is required to be acknowledged, in order that they may be recorded, and they shall cause such survey to be recorded in the clerk's office of such county. If such company shall intend to construct its road continuously in or through more than one county, such application shall specify the number of commissioners which the company desire to have appointed to lay out such road, which shall not exceed three for each county, and an equal number of such commissioners shall be appointed by the board of supervisors of each county in or through which it shall be proposed to construct such road, but the whole number of such commissioners shall not be less than three, nor without the consent of such company shall it exceed six, unless the number of counties in or through which it is proposed to construct such road shall exceed that number. And the commissioners so appointed shall lay out the whole of such road, and shall make out a separate survey of so much thereof as lies in each county, which shall be subscribed and acknowledged as aforesaid and recorded in the county clerk's office of such county. Such company shall pay each of the said commissioners two dollars for every day spent by him in the performance of his duties, as such commissioner, and his necessary expenses.

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