CORPORATIONS FOR HOTEL PURPOSES. 43 to an action therefor before an execution shall be returned unsatisfied, in whole or in part, against the company, and then the amount due on such execution shall be the amount recoverable, with costs, against such stockholders. § 14. It si all be the duty of the trustees of every such corporation or company to cause a book to be kept by the treasurer or clerk thereof, containing the names of all persons, alphabetically arranged, who are, or shall within six years have been, stockholders of such company, and showing their places of residence, the number of shares of stock held by them respectively, and the time when they respectively became the owners of such shares, and the amount of stock actually paid in; which book shall, during the usual business hours of the day, on every day except Sunday, and the thirtieth day of May, the fourth day of July, the twenty-fifth day of December and the first day of January, be open for the inspection of stockholders and creditors of the company, who have obtained judgment upon their claims, upon which execution has been returned unsatisfied in whole or in part, and their personal representatives, at the office or principal place of business of such company, in the county where its business operations shall be located; and any and every such stockholder, creditor or representative shall have a right to make extracts from such book; and no transfer of such stock shall be valid for any purpose whatever, except to render the person to whom it shall be transferred liable for the debts of the company according to the provisions of this act, until it shall have been entered therein, as required by this section, by an entry showing to and from where transferred. Such book shall be presumptive evidence of the facts therein stated, in favor of the plaintiff in any suit or proceeding against such company or against any one or more stockholders. Every officer or agent of any such company who shall neglect to make any proper entry in such book, or shall refuse or neglect to exhibit the same or allow the same to be inspected and extracts to be taken therefrom, as provided by this section, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and the company shall forfeit and pay to the party injured a penalty of fifty dollars for every such neglect or refusal, and all the damages resulting therefrom; and every company that shall neglect to keep such book open for inspection as aforesaid shall forfeit to the people the sum of fifty dollars for every day it shall so neglect, to be sued for and recovered in the name of the people by the district attorney of the county in which the business of such corporation shall be located; and when so recovered, the amount shall be paid into the treasury of such county for the use thereof. 15. Every corporation created under this act shall possess the general powers and privileges, and be subject to the liabilities and restrictions contained in title third of chapter eighteen of the first part of the Revised Statutes. § 16. After the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to organize any corporation under chapter three hundred and seventy-one of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, or the acts passed supplementary thereto or amendatory thereof. 17. The trustees of any company organized or hereafter to be organized under this act may purchase SLANDERING THE INN. 45 lands and other property necessary for their business and issue shares of the capital stock of such company in payment therefor to the amounts of the value of such property, and the stock so issued shall be declared and taken to be full-paid stock and not liable to any further calls, and the holders thereof shall only be subject to the same liabilities and have the same rights as other holders of full-paid stock in said company, but in all statements and reports of the com pany to be published their stock shall not be stated or reported as being issued for cash paid into the company, but shall be reported in this respect according to the facts. But nothing in this act contained shall be construed to authorize the trustees of any such company to issue stock in excess of the amount limited by its certificate of incorporation. [Added by Chapter 127, Laws of 1886.] SLANDERING THE INN. In Bacon's abridgement it is laid down that misstatements, made to the disparagement of a hotel with the design of inducing people not to become guests, are actionable at law, and this seems to be the rule on the subject.' I. See Trimmer vs. Hiscock, 27 Hun., 364. CHAPTER III. INN-KEEPERS AND GUESTS. We shall next consider the duties of the innkeeper toward the public, and his rights in connection with such responsibility. DUTY TO RECEIVE GUESTS. By the common law every person who opened a public house of entertainment known as an inn by the wayside, and proposed to exercise the business and employment of a common inn-keeper, was bound to receive into his inn, and furnish such accommodations as he possessed to all travelers who applied for the same, in a fit and proper condition to be received, and who were able and willing to pay his customary charges for entertainment, and conduct themselves in an orderly manner. By opening a common inn, the hosteller undertakes to receive and entertain all travelers until his house is filled; and that although he has removed the sign which he had before exhibited, if he continue to conduct his house as formerly, and hold himself forth as keeping an inn. It was held that he was under the same obligation to receive the horses 1, Taylor vs. Humphreys, 30 Law J., 262; Watson vs. 2, DUTY TO RECEIVE GUESTS. I 47 of his guests, and keep them, and also whatever goods they might bring to the inn. The inn-keeper is not at liberty to refuse to receive any guest, for whom he has room at the inn, either in the day or night, nor can he discharge himself from his liability by a refusal to take charge of his guest's goods on the ground that there are suspected persons in the house for whose conduct he does not care to become responsible. The inn-keeper does not absolutely undertake to receive all persons who come to the inn, but only those who are capable of paying a compensation suitable to the accommodations which he provides for his guests.3 If he refused to receive and entertain a guest for whom he had room, without some reasonable ground for such refusal, or if he falsely stated his house was full when he had room for the traveler, he was liable to an action in both the civil and the criminal courts." And it was also held that in such case it was not necessary for the traveler to tender the price of his entertainment to the hosteller, if his rejection was not placed on that ground, nor was it material that the guest was traveling on Sunday, or came to the inn at night, after the inn-keeper had gone to bed. In Bacon's Abridgement it is said: "Neither illness, nor insanity, nor lunacy, nor idiocy, nor hypochondraism, nor vapors, nor absence, nor intended absence, can avail the landlord as an excuse for refusing admission." The illness or desertion of his servants might be an excuse if he had been unable to replace them, 5 I, Idem, supra; 2, Jones on Bailments, 94; Edwards on Bailments, 408; 3, Thompson vs. Lacy, 3 Barn. & Ald., 285; 4, Dyer, 158, b1; Rex vs. Ivens, 7 Carr. & Payne, 213; 5, Bacon's Abridgement, Inns, chap. 4; |