A D. 1847. Provis State lands vested in Company, Privileges. Conveyance and transportation. pers in or persons to whom any right or title to such lands, tenements, or here ditaments belong or shall hereafter descend or come, do not prosecute the same within five years next after the construction of the part of the said road upon the lands of the person or persons so having or acquiring such right or title as aforesaid, then he or they, and all claiming under him or them shall be forever barred to recover the same: Provide 1, That nothing herein contained shall affeet the right of feme coverts, infants or persons beyond seas, until two years after the removal of their respective disabilities. XII. That all lands not heretofore granted to any person nor appropriated by law to the use of the State, within one mile from the centre of the main track of the said road that may by constructed, he, and they are hereby vested in the said Company and their successors, so long as the same may be used for the purposes of the said road and no longer. XIII. That the said Company shall at all times have the exclusive right of conveyance or transportation of persons, merchandise aud produce over the Rai Road, to be by them constructed, while they see fit to exercise the exclusive right; and the said Company are hereby authorized to fix and determine upon such rates of charge for the transportation of persons, merchandise and produce, as to them shall seem necessary and proper to secure a reasonable and adequate return upon the capital invested. The said Company may, when they see fit, let or farm out all or any part of their exclusive right of transportation of persons merchandise and produce, with their privileges, to any individual or individuals or other Company, and for such terms as may be agreed upon, and the said Company in the exercise of their right of conveyance and transportation of persons, or property, and the persons so taking from the Company the right of conveyance or transportation, so far as they act on the same shall be regarded as cɔmmon carriers, and the said Company may use or employ any sections of their proposed Rail Road, before the whole shall be completed which may afford publie accommodations for their conveyance of persons, merchandize and produce : and the said Company shall have power to take at the store houses, they may establish or annex to the said Rail Road, all goods, wares, merchandize and produce intended for transportation or conveyance, prescribe the rules of priority, and charge such reasonable prices and compensation for storage and labor, as they may by regulations establish (which regulations they shall publish) or as may be agreed upon with the owners. XIV. That whenever the said Company shall see fit to farm out as afore said, to any other person or persons or body corporate, any part of their exclusive right of conveyance and transportation, or shall deem it expedient to open the said Rail Road or any part thereof to public use, they shall and may adopt and enforce any necessary rules and regulations, and have power to prescribe the construction and size or burthen of all carriages and vehicles and the materials of which they shall be made, that shall be permitted to be used or pass on the said Rail Road and the locomotive power that shall be used with them. A. D. 1847. trusion. XV. That if any person or persons shall intrude upon said Rail Road or any Penalty for inpart thereof by any manner or use thereof, or of the rights or privileges connected therewith without the permission, or contrary to the will of the said Company, he, she, or they, shall forfeit to the Company all the vehicles, articles and animals that may be so intensively introduced, and used thereon, and the same may be seized by the Company, or its agents or recovered by a suit at law; and moreover, the person or persons so intruding, shall and may be indicted as for a misdemeanor, and upon conviction be fined or imprisoned in the discretion of the Court of Session in the District in which he, she or they, shall be tried and convicted, and if any person shall wilfully and maliciously destroy, or in any manner hurt, damage, injure or obstruct the said Rail Road, or any vehicle, edifice, right or privilege, granted by this Act, and constructed and employed under the authority thereof, such person, so offending shall be liable to be indicted as for a misdemeanor therefor, and on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned not more than six months, and be fined not more than five hundred, nor less than twenty dollars, and shall be further liable to pay to the said Company, any damages occasioned by the said injury, and all expenses of repairing the same. The one half of all fines that may be imposed by the Court under this Act, shall be paid to the informer and the other half to the said Company. The provision of this section shall be extended as well to the owners of the lands through which the said road may be constructed, as to other persons, and no owner or other person claiming under him, or her, shall avoid the said provisions by the plea of Liberum tenementum, or by any other plea whatever. XVI. That the right to make, keep up, and use the said Rail Road, and the Rights of Comconveyance and transportation thereupon, shall vest and continue in the said thirty six years. Company for and during the term of thirty six years, to be computed from the time of the corporate existence of the Company: Provided, that the subscription of stock in the said Company, be filled up to the amount of eight thousand shares within four years from the passing of this Act, and the said Rail Road be commenced within two years and be completed within ten years after the shares shall be subscribed. XVII. That after the President and Directors shall be elected, as aforesaid A. D. 1317. Treasurer. it shall always be in the power of the President and Directors of the Company, at a meeting of the board, a majority being present, to nominate and appoint a Secretary and Secretary, Treasurer, and all other officers, agents and servants, that they may deem necessary, or that may be prescribed in the bye-laws of said Company, and to remove the same at pleasure, and also to require and take from all the officers, agents and servants, such bond or bonds and security as the board, or the bye-laws may prescribe for securing the fidelity, obedience and accountability of said officers, agents and servants, and their punctual surrender and delivery of all monies and property, on the termination of their offices, by resigLation, removal, or expiration of their term. money from Bank. 2 XVIII. That the President and Directors, by an order signed by the PresiPower to draw dent, shall have power to draw from banks, all such sums of money as may have been received by the different sets of Commissioners, for the first payment by subscribers upon their subscriptions of stock, as before provided, except the sums for such shares as may be cancelled and thrown out, upon adjustment of the shares, in case of over subscriptions, which shall be drawn and re-paid to the subscribers of such shares, by the Commissioners respectively, before whom such subscriptions were made, immediately upon notification to said Commissioners of such adjustment, XIX. That every subscriber or holder of stock in said Company, shall pay to the Company the amount of the shares by him or her subscribed, or held, in Instalments to such instalments, not exceeding five dollars on each share at one time, and at be paid. such periods, with intervals of not less than sixty days, as shall be prescribed and called for by the Directors, of which periods of payments, and the sums required, the board of Directors shall cause public notice to be given for at least four weeks previous to such periods of payment, by advertisement in one of the gazettes published at Columbia, and on failure of any subscriber, or stockholder, to pay up any instalments so called for by the Directors, the shares upon which default shall be made, together with any past payments thereon, shall be Shares for eited forfeited to the Company, and be appropriated as they shall see fit. And the said Company shall and may prescribe, in and by their bye-laws, rules and regulations, the mode of issuing the evidence of shares of stock and the manner terms and conditions of assigning shares of the stock. XX. That if any stockholder shali fail to pay the instalment required of him on his share or shares, within one month after the same shall have been advertised in one or more newspapers published in this State, it shall and may be lawful for the President and Directors, or a majority of them, to sell at public auction and convey to the purchaser, the share or shares of such stockholder so failing sold in case of failure to pay up or refusing, giving twenty days notice of the time and place of sale: and after A. D. 1847. retaining the sum due and all the expenses incident on the sale, out of the pro- Shares to be ceeds, shall pay the surplus to the former owner, or his legal representatives or assignees. And any purchaser of the stock of the Company under the sale of instalments. the President and Directors, as aforesaid, shall be subject to the same rules and regulations as the original proprietor: and no sale by the original proprietor of stock or his assignees, shall release the original proprietor from his obligation to the Company to pay the whole amount of his subscription. And in addition to the foregoing remedy, the President and Directors may proceed by action of assumpsit or debt, in any of the Courts of Law, for the recovery of the instalments due and not paid by any delinquent subscriber or stockholder, or his assignee, who shall not pay the same on requisition made in manner and form as aforesaid. XXI. That if the said Company determine to increase their capital stock, by additional assessments on the original shares, as herein before provided, the sums so assessed, shall be called for, in such instalments, at such periods, and such notices, and not otherwise, as are provided in the nineteenth section of this Act; and failure to pay up such assessments, shall induce a forfeiture to the Company in like manner as provided in said section, of the shares of stock on which default shall be made. Assessments be called for. to Powers of Pre rectors. XXII. That the President and Directors shall be styled the Direction of the Company, and shall have power to call for all instalments, declare all dividends sident and Diof profits, make all contracts and agreements in behalf of the Company, and to do and perform all other lawful acts and deeds which by the bye-laws of the corporation, they may be authorized and required to do and perform; and the acts or contracts of the direction authorized by the signatures of the President and Secretary, shall be binding on the Company, without seal. The Direction shall not exceed in their contracts the amount of the capital in the Company, and in case they do so, the President and Directors, who are present at the meeting when such contracts exceeding the capital shall be made, shall be jointly and severally liable for the excess, as well to the contracters as to the Company: Provided, that any one may discharge himself from such liability by voting against such contracts, causing such vote to be recorded in the minutes of the Direction, and giving notice thereof to the next general meeting of the stockholders. The Direction shall keep regular minutes of all their meetings, and of the acts there done, and they shall make a full report of the state of the Company and of its affairs, to a general meeting of the stockholders, at least once in every year, and oftener if so directed by the bye-laws, and they shall have 31 A. D. 1847. power to call a general meeting of the stockholders when they may deem it expe from certain du ties. dient, and the Company may provide in their bye-laws, for occasional meetings of the stockholders, and prescribe the mode of calling the same. XXIII. That the following officers and persons, while in the actual employ Officers exempt ment of the said Company shall be exempt from the performance of ordinary militia duty, and from service on juries, viz: the Chief Engineer, and Assistant Engineers, the Commissioners and Superintending officer, the Secretary and the Treasurer of the Directors, the Keepers of Depositories, the Guards stationed on the Road to protect it from injury (not exceeding one white man to every five miles), and such persons as may be actually employed in working the locomotive engines and in travelling with cars, for the purpose of attending to the transportation of passengers or goods on the said road, not exceeding one white engineer and his white assistant to each engine, and one white person to each passenger car, and to every five cars for the transportation of goods. Exempt from an Act. XXIV. That the said Spartanburg and Union Rail Road Company shall be the provisions of and is hereby excepted from the provisions of the forty-first section of an Act entitled "An Act to incorporate certain Villages, Societies and Companies, and to renew and amend certain Charters heretofore granted, and to establish the principles on which charters of incorporations will hereafter be granted,” ratified on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, but nothing herein contained, shall be construed to exempt the said Company from provisions of the said forty-first section, upon any future grant, renewal, or modification of their charter. Public Act. XXV. That the said Company, if they can agree upon the terms of union, unite with and become a part of the Greenville and Columbia Rail Road Company, or of the Charlotte and South Carolina Rail Road Company, in either of which events, the rights and privileges conferred by this Act, shall belong to the two Companies so uniting. That this Act shall be deemed a Public Act. In the Senate House, the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one R. F. W. ALLSTON, President of the Senate pro tem |