Sec. 758. CONTRACT INVALID IF BENEFICIARY TO PAY ASSESSMENTS.No contract with any such association shall be valid when there is a contract, agreement, or understanding between the member and the beneficiary prior to or at the time of becoming a member of the association that the beneficiary, or any person for him, shall pay such member's assessments and dues, or either of them.

Sec. 759. BENEFITS EXEMPT FROM ATTACHMENT.-The money or other benefit, charity, relief, or aid to be paid, provided, or rendered by any association authorized to do business under this subchapter shall not be liable to attachment, garnishment, or other process, and shall not be seized, taken, appropriated, or applied by any legal or equitable process, or by operation of law to pay any debt or liability of a certificate holder or of any beneficiary named in a certificate, or any person who may have any right thereunder.

Sec. 760. MEETINGS.-Any such association organized under the laws of said District may provide for the meetings of its legislative or governing body in any State, country, province, or Territory wherein such association shall have subordinate bodies, and all business transacted at such meetings shall be valid in all respects as if such meetings were held within said District; and where the laws of any such association provide for the election of its officers by votes to be cast in its subordinate bodies, the votes so cast in its subordinate bodies in any State, country, province or Territory shall be valid as if cast within said District.

Sec. 761. FRAUDULENT REPRESENTATIONS. Any person, officer, member, or examining physician who shall knowingly or willfully make any false or fraudulent statement or representation in or with reference to any application for membership or for restoration to membership or for the purpose of obtaining any money or benefit in any association transacting business under this subchapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the United States jail in said District for not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or both, in the discretion of the court; and any person who shall willfully make a false statement of any material fact or thing in a sworn statement as to the death or disability of a certificate holder in any such association for the purpose of procuring payment of a benefit named in the certificate of such older, and any person who shall willfully make any false statement in any verified report or declaration under oath required or authorized by this subchapter, shall be guilty of perjury.

Sec. 762. NEGLECT TO REPORT.-Any such association refusing or neglecting to make the report as provided in this subchapter shall be excluded from doing business within said District. Said superintendent of insurance must, within sixty days after failure to make such report, or in case any such association shall exceed its powers, or shall conduct its business fraudulently, or shall fail to comply with any of the provisions of this subchapter, give notice in writing to the attorney for said District, who shall immediately commence an action against such association to enjoin the same from carrying on any business. An injunction against any such association may be granted on application by the Commissioners of said District at the request of the said

superintendent. No association so enjoined shall have authority to continue business until such report shall be made, or overt act or violation complained of shall have been corrected, nor until the costs of such action be paid by it, (provided, the court shall find that such association was in default, as charged,) whereupon the superintendent of insurance shall reinstate such association, and not until then shall such association be allowed again to do business in said District. Any officer, agent, or person acting for any association or subordinate body thereof, within said District, while such association shall be so enjoined or prohibited from doing business pursuant to this subchapter, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in said jail not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

Sec. 763. ACTING WITHOUT AUTHORITY.—Any person who shall act within said District as an officer, agent, or otherwise, for any association which shall have failed, neglected, or refused to comply with, or shall have violated any of the provisions of this subchapter, or shall have failed or neglected to procure from the said superintendent a proper certificate of authority to transact business as provided for in this subchapter, shall be subject to the penalty provided in the last preceding section for the misdemeanor therein specified. To "transact business" or "doing business" under this subchapter means the writing of applications and the soliciting of new members so far as the penalty of this subchapter applies thereto. It shall not be unlawful for any organization under section seven hundred and forty-nine to continue the operation of its lodges or branches except in securing new members.

Sec. 764. THIS LAW NOT TO APPLY TO ASSOCIATIONS FOR PROFIT. Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to apply to any corporation, society, order, or association carrying on the business of life, health, casualty, or accident insurance for profit or gain, and it shall only apply to fraternal beneficial associations as defined by section seven hundred and forty-nine, and nothing in this subchapter contained shall be construed to affect any grand or subordinate lodge or branch of any such fraternal beneficial societies, orders, or associations which limits its certificate holders to a particular religious denomination or to the employees of a particular town or city, designated firm, business house, or corporation, or department or branch of the United States Government, nor the grand or subordinate lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, nor any grand or subordinate lodge, or other body of Free and Accepted Masons, nor the grand or any subordinate lodge of the Knights of Pythias, or similar orders, associations, or societies that do not have as their principal object the issuance of benefit certificates of membership in case of death or the payment of sick, funeral, or death benefits exceeding in amount one hundred dollars.

Sec. 765. NOR TO ASSOCIATIONS OR INDIVIDUALS USING NAME OF PREVIOUSLY EXISTING CORPORATION. The provisions of this subchapter shall not extend to nor apply to any association or individual who shall, in the certificate filed with the recorder of deeds, use or specify a name or style the same as that of any previously existing incorporated fraternal beneficial association in the District of Columbia.

Subchapter XIII.-EXISTING CORPORATIONS.

Sec. 766. REORGANIZATION.--Any corporation heretofore existing or doing business in the District of Columbia may come under and avail itself of the provisions of this chapter by giving to its stockholders, members, or associates notice as prescribed in section six hundred and thirty-five of subchapter four thereof and pursuing the same procedure and complying with the same requirements as are prescribed in said subchapter in respect to increase or diminution of capital stock; and upon filing its certificate of reorganization in such case, such company shall be entitled to the privileges and provisions and be subject to the liabilities of the class of corporations to which it belongs, as provided in and by this chapter.

Sec. 767. NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR CHARTER, AND SO FORTH. Whoever, not being a Senator or Representative in Congress, intends to present to Congress a bill for an act of incorporation, or for an alteration or extension of the charter of a corporation in the District of Columbia, or of any special privileges in said District, shall give notice of such intention by publishing a copy of the bill at least once a week for four successive weeks, in a newspaper published in the District of Columbia, the last of said publications to be made at least fourteen days prior to the presentation of such bill. Such newspaper shall be designated by the person proposing the bill and approved by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia.

Subchapter XIV.-DISSOLUTION OF CORPORATIONS.

Sec. 768. VOLUNTARY, WHEN.-When a majority of the trustees, directors, or other officers having the management of the concerns of any corporation in the District, or stockholders representing not less than one-third of the capital stock of any such corporation, discover that the property and effects of the corporation have been so far reduced, by losses or otherwise, that it will not be able to pay all just demands against it or offer a reasonable security to those who deal with it, or they shall deem it beneficial to the interests of the stockholders that the corporation be dissolved, or when such directors, trustees, or other officers are authorized by a majority of the stockholders to apply for a decree, as hereinafter provided, or when the objects of the corporation have wholly failed or are entirely abandoned or are impracticable, they may apply to the supreme court of the District by petition for the dissolution of said corporation.

Sec. 769. APPLICATION TO SUPREME COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Such application shall contain a statement of the reasons upon which it is founded, and there shall be annexed thereto

First. A full, just, and true inventory of all the estate, real and personal, of the corporation, and of all the books, vouchers, and securities relating thereto.

Second. A full, just, and true account of the capital stock of the corporation, specifying the names of the stockholders, their residences, when known, the number of shares belonging to each, the amounts paid in upon said shares, respectively, and the amounts still due thereon. Third. A statement of all the incumbrances on the property of the corporation and of all the engagements entered into by it which have

not been fully satisfied or canceled, specifying the place of residence of each creditor and of every person to whom such engagements were made, if known, the sum owing to each creditor and the nature and consideration of the indebtedness, and such application shall be verified by affidavit.

Sec. 770. PUBLICATION.-On the filing of such application, accounts, inventories, and affidavit, an order shall be passed requiring all persons interested in said corporation to appear in said court and show cause by a day named, if any they have, why it should not be dissolved, and a notice of said order shall be published in some newspaper of general circulation weekly for three successive weeks, the first insertion to be not less than one month before the day fixed for showing cause as aforesaid.

Sec. 771. REFERENCE TO TAKE TESTIMONY.-Whether answer be made or not, the cause shall be referred to the auditor, who shall take testimony in relation to the allegations of the petition, and report to the court, with all convenient speed, with a statement of the property and effects, debts, credits, and engagements of the corporation and all other matters relative to the issues in said cause.

Sec. 772. DECREE OF DISSOLUTION.-If it appear to the court that the corporation is insolvent, or that a dissolution thereof will be beneficial to the stockholders and not injurious to the public interests, or that the objects of the corporation have wholly failed or been abandoned or are impracticable, a decree shall be entered dissolving the corporation and appointing one or more receivers of its estate and effects; and the corporation shall thereupon be dissolved and cease to exist.

Sec. 773. RECEIVER.—A director, trustee, or other officer of the corporation, or any of its stockholders, may be appointed a receiver, and any receiver so appointed shall give bond in such penalty, and with such surety or sureties, as may be approved by the court, conditioned for the due discharge of his duties as receiver.

Sec. 774. Upon his giving surety as aforesaid the receiver shall be vested with all the estate, real or personal, of the corporation, for the benefit of its creditors and stockholders.

Sec. 775. The said receiver shall proceed to collect and take into his possession all the assets and effects of the corporation, including any sums due and unpaid upon the subscriptions to the capital stock of the corporation, and shall have authority to institute all needful actions for that object. He shall give public notice of his appointment and require all creditors of the corporation to present their claims to him.

Sec. 776. VOID ASSIGNMENTS.-All sales, assignments, transfers, mortgages, and conveyances of any part of the estate, real or personal, of said corporation, including choses in action of every description, made after the filing of the petition for dissolution, in payment of or as security for any existing or prior debt, or for any other consideration, and all judgments confessed by said corporation after that time, shall be void as against the receiver appointed on said petition and as against the creditors of the corporation.

Sec. 777. CONTROVERSIES WITH DEBTORS AND CREDITORS.-The receiver may settle controversies that arise between him and the debt

ors or creditors of the corporation by arbitration. If there be any open and subsisting engagements or contracts of the corporation in the nature of insurance, or contingent engagements of any kind, the receiver may, with the consent of the party holding such engagements, cancel and discharge the same by refunding to such party the premium or consideration paid thereon to the corporation, or so much thereof as shall be in the same proportion to the time which remains of any risk assumed by such engagements as the whole premium bears to the whole term of such risk; and upon such amount being paid by the receiver to the person holding such engagement it shall be deemed canceled and discharged as against the receiver.

Sec. 778. DISTRIBUTION.-The receiver may retain out of the money in his hands the amounts necessary for the purpose of canceling and discharging any open and subsisting engagements and of satisfying any demands for which a suit may be pending against the corporation and the costs of the proceeding, and distribute the residue among the creditors of the corporation, giving preference to debts which are liens on the property of the corporation, and shall make dividends from time to time among the creditors until their debts are paid in full.

Sec. 779. DIVIDENDS TO STOCKHOLDERS. No dividends shall be paid to stockholders until after the final dividend to the creditors, and if, after such final dividend is made, there remain any surplus in the receiver's hands, he shall distribute the same among the stockholders in proportion to the respective amounts paid in by them severally on their shares of stock.

Sec. 780. RECEIVER UNDER COURT'S DIRECTION.-The receiver shall be subject to the direction of the court as to making dividends and rendering his accounts and shall receive such commission as the court shall allow, not exceeding the rate allowed to executors and administrators, and reasonable counsel fees for services rendered to him.

Sec. 781. DISSOLUTION BY STOCKHOLDERS.-When a majority of the directors, trustees, or other officers of a corporation become satisfied that the objects of the corporation can not be accomplished, and no installment of the capital stock has been paid, and no investments have been made and no debts incurred which are unpaid, they may call a meeting of the stockholders, by a notice published in some newspaper of general circulation, and if a majority, in amount, of the stockholders present at such meeting, in person or by proxy, shall decide that the objects of the corporation can not be accomplished, the corporation shall thereupon be dissolved and cease.

Sec. 782. WHO TO BE TRUSTEES FOR CREDITORS AND STOCKHOLDERS. Upon the dissolution of a corporation by the expiration of its charter, or otherwise, unless other persons be appointed by the stockholders, directors, or trustees of the corporation, or by a decree of the supreme court of the District, the directors or trustees acting last before the dissolution, and their survivors, shall be the trustees for the creditors and stockholders of the dissolved corporation, and shall Jave full power to settle the affairs of the same, to collect its assets and pay its outstanding debts, and divide among its stockholders the money or other property remaining, in proportion to the stock of each stockholder paid up; and in case of the refusal of said trustees or directors, or a majority of them, to act, the said court may, upon the application of any person interested, appoint trustees in their place.