No. 237. AN ACT Authorizing the town council of the borough of Pottstown, to widen High street, in said borough. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the town council of the borough of Pottstown, in the county of Montgomery, be and they are hereby authorized to widen High street, in said borough, on the south-west side thereof, from the north corner of John Kepner's lot, to Nathaniel P. Hobart's land, so as to make said street as wide between said Kepner's and Hobart's lands, as the same is to the north-east of Kepner's lot, of which part of said street so widened, a draft or plot showing the intersection of other streets therewith, and the improvements on High street, shall be made and signed by the members of the said town council or a majority thereof, attested by their clerk, and be filed and entered in the office of the clerk of the court of quarter sessions of said county, with a report of said council of the widening the said street as aforesaid, and from the time the report and draft or plot aforesaid, shall be filed in the office of the said clerk of the court of quarter sessions, the part of the said street, which shall be widened as above mentioned, shall be deemed and taken to be a public street or highway, and shall be opened and improved, and kept in repair by the town council of the said borough, as other streets, roads and alleys, therein. JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN, Speaker of the House of Representatives. WILLIAM BIGLER, Speaker of the Senate. APPROVED-The twenty-third day of April, one thousand eight hun dred and forty-four. DAVID R. PORTER. No. 238. AN ACT To incorporate the Mutual insurance company of Schuylkill county. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That Nathaniel J. Mills, Henry Geiss, Hugh Kinsley, Strange N. Palmer, Moses Weiser, Edward Huntzinger, Frederick Beck, Christian Berger, Jesse Forster, Daniel Bartolett, John Bonewitz, George Boyer, Michael Corporators. Weaver, Charles W. Pitman, Samuel K. Kepner, Joshua Boyer, Peter F. Ludwick, John Seltzer, Daniel Krebs, Patrick Curry, Nathan Barlow, Benjamin M. Lewis, William Mortimere, William Hagerty, Jacob Kline, Benjamin Taylor, Benjamin Haywood, William Bock, William Koch, Daniel B. Kushner, Charles W. Clements and Wilson H. Tweed, of the county of Schuylkill, and all other persons who may hereafter associate with them in the manner hereinafter prescribed, shall be and are hereby constituted and declared to be a body politic and corporate, by the name, style and title of the Schuylkill county mutual in- Name. surance company, and by the same name shall have perpetual succession, and shall be able to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded in all courts of record, or elsewhere; and also make and have one common seal, and the same to alter and renew at pleasure; and also to ordain, Seal. establish and put in execution such by-laws, ordinances and regulations By-laws. as shall appear necessary and convenient for the government of the said corporation, not being contrary to this charter or the laws of the United States, or of this commonwealth; and generally to do and transact all such matters and things as shall to them lawfully appertain. SECTION 2. The affairs of said company shall be managed by a Directors and SECTION 3. The object and business of said company shall and is Object. SECTION 4. All persons who shall hereafter insure with the said cor- Members. SECTION 5. The members of the corporation shall upon ten days First election. notice in one newspaper published in the borough of Pottsville, (and in handbills, if deemed necessary,) meet at their office in the borough of Pottsville, on the first Monday in January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, and hold their first election of directors, and such election shall be held under the inspection of three members, to be chosen by the members, who may attend at the time and place of holding the election; such election of directors shall be by ballot, and a plurality of the votes given shall be deemed a majority to -elect; and the directors so elected shall continue in office until the first Monday in January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, or until others are elected; and in case of a vacancy by death, resignation or otherwise, of any member in the board, the members of the board shall have power to fill such vacancy or vacancies Annual election. until the next annual election, on which day, and annually thereafter, an election shall be held for directors, as is provided in this section; and each member shall be allowed one vote for any amount he may have insured under one thousand dollars, and an additional vote for every additional thousand dollars he may have insured; but no amount insured shall entitle any member to more than ten votes. Vacancy. Votes. Deposite note. Loans. Lien. Suits. Damages. Assessments to pay losses, &c. SECTION 6. Every person who shall become a member of this corporation by effecting insurance therein, shall, before he receives his policy deposite his promissory note for such sum of money as shall be determined by the directors, a part not exceeding five per cent. of said note, shall be immediately paid in, and the remainder of said deposite note shall be payable in part or the whole, at any time when the directors shall deem the same requisite for the payment of loss by fire, and such incidental charges as shall be necessary for transacting the business of said company; and at the expiration of the time of insurance the said note, or such part of the same as shall remain unpaid after deducting all losses and expenses accruing during said time, shall be relinquished and given up to the maker thereof. SECTION 7. That it shall be lawful for said corporation to loan such portions of money on hand as may not be immediately wanted for the purpose of said corporation, to be secured by mortgage or judgment, creating a lien for the same upon real estate of sufficient value, beyond other incumbrances, to render the same perfectly secure, or upon other good and sufficient securities: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to authorize said corporation to exercise banking privileges. SECTION 8. Suits at law may be maintained by said corporation against any of its members, for the collection of said notes, or any assignment thereon, or for any cause relating to the business of said corporation; also, all suits may be prosecuted and maintained by any member against said corporation, for losses and damages by fire, if payment be withheld or refused more than three months after the company are duly notified of such losses: no member of the company not being in his individual capacity a party to the suit or suits, shall be incompetent as a witness, on account of his being a member of the company. SECTION 9. If the whole amount of the deposite note shall not be sufficient to pay the loss occasioned by any fire or fires, in such case the sufferers insured by said company shall receive, towards making good their respective losses, a proportionate dividend of the whole amount of said notes, according to the sums by them respectively insured, and in addition thereto, a sum to be assessed on all members of said company, on the same principles as regulated their deposite notes, but not exceeding one per cent. on the amount by them insured; and no member shall ever be required to pay for any loss occasioned by fire, at any OF THE SESSION OF 1844. one time, more than one per cent. on the amount by them insured in said company, in addition to the amount of his deposite note, nor more than that amount for any such loss which may accrue after his note shall have been paid in and expended, but any member upon the payment of the whole of his deposite note and surrender of his policy, before any subsequent loss or expense has accrued, may be discharged from said company. SECTION 10. The hereinbefore named persons, or any eleven of First directors. JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN, WILLIAM BIGLER, Speaker of the Senate. APPROVED-The twenty-third day of April, one thousand eight hun dred and forty-four. DAVID R. PORTER. No. 239. AN ACT To incorporate the Mutual life insurance company of Philadelphia. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa tives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That John C. Da Costa, Joseph Cabot, F. W. Hubbell, Charles S. Riche, Corporators. B. M. Hinchman, John Swift, Charles W. Churchman, E. S. Coxe, Charles Rugan, J. M'Lanahan, John Dallett, S. M. Waln, John Mason, William S. Neilson, E. W. Robison, T. C. Rockhill, Henry Bohlen, Samuel Grant, John L. Hodge, Robert Soutter, Jr., Thomas B. Wattson, Richard D. Wood, C. P. Relf, George A. Wood, H. Pratt M'Kean, J. P. Pleasants, Joseph Swift, Charles Newbold, H. W. Andrews, L. Kimball, Stephen Baldwin, Isaac Lloyd, Junior, T. Deland, Charles Gibbons, Nalbro Frazier, Richard S. Smith, and all other persons who may hereafter associate with them in the manner hereinafter prescribed, shall be a body politic and corporate, by the name of the Mutual life insurance company of Philadelphia, and by Name. that name shall have perpetual succession, and may sue and be sued, and hold, purchase, receive and convey real and personal estate, (with the limitations hereinafter specified,) and may make and use a common Seal. seal, and alter or change the same at pleasure; and make by-laws, not By-laws. inconsistent with any existing law, for the management of its property and the regulation of its affairs; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to give unto the same corporation any banking powers or Banking. privileges. Insure lives. Real estate. Moneys due. Debts. Judgments, &c. Prohibition. Members. Board of trustees. Quorum. First trustees. Classification of trustees. SECTION 2. In addition to the general powers and privileges of a corporation, as the same are declared by the foregoing section, the corporation hereby created shall have the power to insure the respective lives of its members, and others, and to make all and every insurance appertaining to, or connected with, life risks of whatsoever kind or nature, and to grant and purchase annuities. The real estate which it shall be lawful for the said corporation to purchase, receive, hold and convey, shall be I. Such as shall be requisite for its immediate accommodation in the convenient transaction of its business; or II. Such as shall have been mortgaged to it in good faith, by way of security for loans previously contracted, or for moneys due; or III. Such as shall have been conveyed to it in satisfaction of debts previously contracted in the course of its dealings; or IV. Such as shall have been purchased at sales upon judgments, decrees or mortgages obtained or made for such debts. The said corporation shall not purchase, receive, hold or convey real estate in any other case or for any other purpose. SECTION 3. All persons who shall hereafter insure with the said corporation, and also their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, continuing to be insured in said corporation as hereinafter provided, shall thereby become members during the period they shall remain insured by such corporation, and no longer. SECTION 4. All the corporate powers of the said company shall be exercised by a board of trustees, and such officers and agents as they may appoint; the board of trustees shall consist of thirty-six persons, all of whom must be citizens of the state; they shall elect a president, annually, who shall be a member of this corporation; and they shall have power to declare by by-laws, what number of trustees less than a majority of the whole, but no less than nine, shall be a quorum for the transaction of business. SECTION 5. The persons named in the first section of this act shall constitute the first board of trustees. SECTION 6. The trustees shall, at their first meeting, divide themselves, by lot, into four classes of nine each; the term of the first class shall expire at the end of one year; the term of the second class shall expire at the end of two years; the term of the third class shall expire at the end of three years; the term of the fourth class shall expire at the end of four years, and so on successively each and every year; the seats of these classes shall be supplied by the members of this corporation, a plurality of votes constituting a choice; but an insurance of at least one thousand dollars in amount, shall be necessary to entitle any member to a vote; this section shall not be construed to prevent a trustee going out, from being eligible to a re-election; the board of trustees may fill any vacancies in their number occasioned by death, resignation or removal from the state; the election of trustees shall be held on Annual election. the first Monday of June in each year, in such place in the city of Philadelphia as the board of trustees shall designate, of which they shall give at least fourteen days previous notice, in two of the public newspapers printed in the said city; and the board of trustees shall at the same time appoint three of the members of the said corporation inspectors, to preside at such election; and if any of the said inspectors decline or fail to attend, the trustees may appoint others to fill such vacancies. Vacancies. Inspectors. |