ACTS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, PROVIDING FOR THE INCORPORATION OF FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES, AND LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES. [From the "United States Insurance Gazette," of August 19, 1854, (New York.) } An Act of the State of New York to provide for the Incorporation of § 1. Any number of persons, not less than thirteen, may associate and form an incorporated company for the following purposes, to wit: To make insurance on dwelling-houses, stores, and all kinds of buildings, and upon household furniture and other property, against loss or damage by fire, and the risks of inland navigation and transportation. § 2. Any company organized under this act, shall have power to effect reinsurance of any risks taken by them respectively. § 3. Such persons shall file in the office of the comptroller a decla. ration, signed by all the corporators, expressing their intention to form a company for the purpose of transacting the business of insurance, as expressed in the first section of this act, which declaration shall also comprise a copy of the charter proposed to be adopted by them, and shall publish a notice of such their intention, once in each week, for at least six weeks, in a public newspaper in the county in which such insurance company is proposed to be located. § 4. The charter comprised in such declaration, shall set forth the name of the company, the place where the principal office for the transaction of its business shall be located; the mode and manner in which the corporate powers granted by this act are to be exercised; the mode and manner of electing trustees or directors, a majority of whom shall be citizens of this State, and of filling vacancies, (but each director of a stock company shall be the owner in his own right of at least five hundred dollars worth of the stock of such company, at its par value); the period for the commencement and termination of its fiscal year, and the amount of capital to be employed in the transaction of its business; and the comptroller shall have the right to reject any name or title of any company applied for, when he shall deem the name too similar to one already appropriated, or likely to mislead the public in any respect. § 5. No company formed under this act shall, directly or indirectly, deal or trade in buying or selling any goods, wares, merchandise, or other commodities whatever, excepting such articles as may have been insured by any company, and are claimed to be damaged by fire or water. § 6. No joint-stock company shall be incorporated under this act in the city and county of New York, nor in the county of Kings, nor shall any company incorporated under this act establish any agency for the transaction of business in either of said counties with a smaller capital than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, nor in any other county in this State with a smaller capital than fifty thousand dollars; nor shall any company formed for the purpose of doing the business of fire or inland navigation insurance, on the plan of mutual insurance, commence business, if located in the city of New York, or in the county of Kings, nor establish any agency for the transaction of business in either of said counties, until agreements have been entered into for insurance with at least four hundred applicants, the premiums on which shall amount to not less than two hundred thousand dollars, of which forty thousand dollars shall have been paid in cash, and notes of solvent parties, founded on actual and bonâ fide applications for insurance, shall have been received for the remaining one hundred and sixty thousand dollars: nor shall any mutual insurance company in any other county of the State commence business until agreements have been entered into for insurance, with at least two hundred applicants, the premiums on which shall amount to not less than one hundred thousand dollars, of which twenty thousand dollars shall have been paid in cash, and notes of solvent parties, founded on actual and bonâ fide applications for insurance, shall have been received for the remaining eighty thousand dollars. No one of the notes received as aforesaid shall amount to more than five hundred dollars; and no two shall be given for the same risk, or be made by the same person or firm, except where the whole amount of such notes shall not exceed five hundred dollars; nor shall any such note be represented as capital stock unless a policy be issued upon the same within thirty days after the organization of the company, upon a risk, which shall be for a shorter period than twelve months. Each of said notes shall be payable, in part or in whole, at any time when the directors shall deem the same requisite for the payment of losses by fire or inland navigation, and such incidental expenses as may be necessary for transacting the business of said company. § 7. It shall and may be lawful for the individuals associated for the purpose of organizing any company under this act, after having published the notice and filed their declaration and charter, as required by the third section of this act, and also on filing in the office of the comptroller proof of such publication, by the affidavit of the publisher of such newspaper, his foreman or clerk, to open books for subscription to the capital stock of the company so intended to be organized, and to keep the same open until the full amount specified in the charter is subscribed; or in case the business of such company is proposed to be conducted on the plan of mutual insurance, then to open books to receive propositions and enter into agreements in the manner and to the extent specified in the sixth section of this act. § 8. It shall be lawful for any company organized under this act, to invest its capital, or the funds accumulated in the course of its bu siness, or any part thereof, in bonds and mortgages on unincumbered real estate within the State of New York, worth fifty per cent. more than the sum loaned thereon, but in such valuation farm buildings shall not be estimated and also in the stocks of this State or of the United States, or in the stocks or bonds of either of the incorporated cities of this State, which shall be at or above par at the time of the investment, and to lend the same, or any part thereof, on the security of such stocks or bonds, or upon bonds and mortgages, as aforesaid, and to change and reinvest the same as occasion may from time to time require; but any surplus money, over and above the capital stock, of any such fire and inland navigation insurance companies, or of any fire insurance company incorporated under any law of this State, may be invested in or loaned upon the pledge of the stock, bonds, or other evidences of indebtedness of any institution incorporated under the laws of this State, except their own stock: provided, always, that the current market value of such stocks, bonds, or other evidences of indebtedness shall be at least ten per cent. more than the sum so loaned thereon. § 9. No company organized by or under this act shall purchase, hold, or convey real estate, excepting for the purposes and in the manner herein set forth, to wit: 1. Such as shall be requisite for its convenient accommodation in the transaction of its business: or, 2. Such as shall have been mortgaged to it in good faith, by way of security for loans previously contracted, or for money due: or, 3. Such as shall have been conveyed to it in satisfaction of debts previously contracted in their legitimate business, or for money due: or, 4. Such as shall have been purchased at sales upon judgments, decrees, or mortgages obtained or made for such debts; and it shall not be lawful for any such company to purchase, hold, or convey real estate in any other case, or for any other purpose and all such real estate as may be acquired as aforesaid, and which shall not be necessary for the accommodation of such company in the transaction of its business, shall be sold and disposed of within five years after such company shall have acquired title thereto, unless the company shall procure a certificate from the comptroller of the State that the interests of the company will suffer materially by a forced sale thereof, in which event the sale may be postponed for such a period as the comptroller shall direct in said certificate; and the comptroller may also give such certificate and extend the time for holding real estate, in the like circumstances, on the application of any insurance company heretofore incorporated. § 10. The charter and proof of publication heretofore required to be filed by every such company, shall be examined by the attorneygeneral, and, if found conformable to this act and not inconsistent with the constitution or laws of this State, shall be certified by him to the comptroller of the State, who shall thereupon cause an examination to be made either by himself or by three disinterested persons specially appointed by him for that purpose, who shall certify under oath, that the capital herein required of the company named in the charter, according to the nature of the business proposed to be transacted by such company, has been paid in and is possessed by it in money, or in such stocks and bonds and mortgages as are required by the eighth section of this act; or, if a mutual company, that it has received and is in actual possession of the capital premiums or bonâ fide engagements of insurance, or other securities, as the case may be, to the full extent and of the value required by the sixth section of this act and the name and the residence of the maker of each premium note forming part of the capital, and the amount of such note, shall be returned to the comptroller; and the corporators or officers of such company shall be required to certify, under oath, that the capital exhibited to those persons is bonâ fide property of the company. Such certificates shall be filed in the office of the comptroller, who shall thereupon deliver to such company a certified copy of the charter and of said certificates, which, on being filed in the office of the clerk of the county where the company is to be located, shall be their authority to commence business and issue policies; and such certified copy of the charter and of said certificates may be used in evidence for or against said company with the same effect with the originals. § 11. The corporators or the trustees or directors, as the case may be, of any company organized under this act, shall have power to make such by-laws, not inconsistent with the constitution or laws of this State, as may be deemed necessary for the government of its officers and the conduct of its affairs, and the same, when necessary, to alter and amend; and they and their successors may have a common seal, and may change and alter the same at their pleasure. § 12. It shall not be lawful for the directors, trustees, or managers of any such company to make any dividend, except from the surplus profits arising from their business; and in estimating such profits, there shall be reserved therefrom a sum equal to the amount of premiums unearned on risks not matured, and also all sums due the corporation on bonds and mortgages, bond, stocks, and book accounts, of which no part of the principal or the interest thereon has been paid during the last year, and for which foreclosure or suit has not been commenced for collection, or, which after judgment obtained thereon, shall have remained more than two years unsatisfied, and on which interest shall not have been paid, and also all interest due or accrued and remaining unpaid. Any dividend made contrary to these provisions shall subject the stockholders receiving it to a joint and several liability to the creditors of such company, to the extent of the dividend made. § 13. All notes deposited with any mutual insurance company at the time of its organization, as provided in section six, shall remain as security for all losses and claims until the accumulation of the profits, invested as required by the eighth section of this act, shall equal |