Statement of the Case.

apolis and Duluth Railroad Company, the Minnesota and Iowa Railroad Company, and the Fort Dodge and Fort Ridgely

same into effect; the name of the new corporation, which may be the name of either corporation party thereto, or any other name; the number, names and places of residence of the directors and other officers thereof, who shall be the directors and officers thereof for the first (1st) year. The amount of the capital stock of the new company, which shall not exceed the amount of twenty million (20,000,000) dollars, the number of shares into which such capital stock is to be divided (which stock may be divided into classes, with such preferences in respect to any of the classes as may be agreed upon), the amount or par value of each share; the manner of converting or exchanging the capital stock of each of the said companies so consolidating into or for that of the new corporation and the terms of such conversion, the manner of compensating stockholders in each of the old corporations who decline to convert their stock into the stock of the new corporation; and how and when directors and officers shall be chosen, with such other details as they shall deem necessary to perfect such new organization and the consolidation of such companies or railroads.

Second (2d). Such agreement of the directors shall not be deemed to be the agreement of the said old corporations until after it has been submitted to the stockholders of each of the said corporations, separately, at a meeting thereof, to be called upon a notice of at least thirty (30) days, specifying the time and place of such meeting and the object thereof, to be addressed to each of such stockholders when their place of residence is known, and deposited in the post office, and published at least three (3) successive weeks in one newspaper in each of the cities, counties or towns in which the said corporations have their principal office or business, and is sanctioned by such stockholders by a vote of at least two-thirds in amount of the stockholders present at such meeting, either in person or by proxy, each share of the capital stock being entitled to one vote; and when such agreement of the directors is so sanctioned by each of the meetings of the stockholders, separately, it shall be deemed the agreement of the said old corporations.

Third (3d). If the holder of any stock in either of the corporations existing under the laws of this State and so consolidated at the time of making such consolidation, shall be dissatisfied with the same, the consolidated company shall pay to such dissatisfied stockholder or stockholders the full actual value of his or their stock immediately prior to such consolidation, which value shall be assessed and fixed by three disinterested commissioners, appointed for that purpose by the Supreme Court of this State, upon the application of either party, made upon twenty (20) days' notice, but the said company shall not be compelled to pay for the stocks of such dissatisfied stockholder or stockholders unless he or they shall give written notice of such dissatisfaction to the president, secretary or treasurer of the company whose stock shall be held by him or them, within three (3) months after

Statement of the Case.

Railroad Company, and articles of incorporation were duly filed in pursuance of the act.

such consolidation shall have been consented to by the requisite number of stockholders.

SECTION ELEVEN (11). Upon the approval of such agreement and act of consolidation as hereinbefore provided, and upon the filing of the same or a copy thereof, in the office of the secretary of State, the said corporations, parties thereto, shall be deemed and taken to be one corporation, by the name provided in the said agreement and act, and the stock of the new corporation issued under the terms of such agreement and act of consolidation in exchange for the stock of the former companies, shall be deemed and taken as lawful stock, and subject only to such further payments, calls or assessments, if any, as may be mentioned in the said consolidation agreement, and such new corporation shall possess all the powers, rights and franchises conferred upon each of its constituent corporations, and shall be subject to all the restrictions and duties imposed by the laws of the State. SECTION TWELVE (12). Upon the consummation of said act of consolidation as aforesaid, all and singular the rights, privileges, exemptions and franchises of each of said corporations parties to the same, and all the property, real, personal and mixed, and all the debts due on whatever account to either of said corporations, as well as all the stock, subscriptions and other things in action belonging to either of said corporations, shall be taken and deemed to be transferred to, and vested in such new corporation without further act or deed, and all claims, demands, property, rights of way, and every other interest shall be as effectually the property of the new corporation as they were of the former corporations parties to the said agreement and act, and the title to all real estate, taken by deed or otherwise under the laws of this State, vested in either of said corporations, parties to said agreement and act, shall not be deemed to revert or be in any way impaired by reason of this act, or anything done by virtue thereof, but shall be vested in the new corporation by virtue of such act of consolidation.

SECTION THIRTEEN (13). The rights of all creditors of and all the holders of liens upon the property of either of said corporations parties to said agreement and act, shall remain and be preserved unimpaired, and shall be assumed and borne by the new corporation, and the respective corporations shall be deemed to continue in existence so far as necessary to preserve the same, and all debts and liabilities incurred by either of said corporations shall thenceforth attach to such new corporation and be enforced against it and its property to the same extent as if said debts or liabilities had been originally incurred or contracted by it. No suit or action or other proceeding now pending before any court or tribunal in which either of said railroad companies is a party, shall be deemed to have abated or been discontinued by the agreement and act of consolidation as aforesaid, but the same may be conducted in the name of the existing corporation to final judgment, or

Statement of the Case.

The consolidated company thereafter entered upon and until the 2d of November, 1894, enjoyed the franchises, rights, property and earnings of the constituent corporations.

The Minneapolis and Duluth Railroad Company was a Minnesota corporation, and the Fort Dodge and Fort Ridgely Railroad Company and the Minnesota and Iowa Southern Railroad Company were Iowa corporations; and the laws of the State of Iowa authorized the incorporators of railroad companies to exempt themselves from personal liability for the corporate debts, by embodying in the articles of incorporation an article or provision declaring the exemption. This was done.

On and prior to June 28, 1888, the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Company executed three mortgages, one of which was to the Central Trust Company of New York, dated June 1, 1881, to secure outstanding bonds of the aggregate par value of $1,382,000, together with interest thereon, at the rate of six per cent. per annum.

This mortgage was duly foreclosed, and the railroad properties, rights and franchises covered by it duly sold, and the title confirmed by final decree to the assignee of the purchaser.

The defendant in error was a judgment creditor of the Consolidated Company, being assignee of a judgment recovered by

such new corporation may be, by order of the court, on motion, substituted as a party; suits may be brought and maintained against such new corporation for all causes of action in the same manner as against other railroad corporations in this State.

SECTION FOURTEEN (14). All the provisions of the general laws of this State, in regard to railroad corporations, shall be applicable to any new corporations formed by consolidation under the provisions of this act, except so far as the same shall not be applicable thereto by reason of the situation of portions of its line without this State. Provided, that, nevertheless, the privileges, franchises, exemptions, immunities, hitherto granted to the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Company shall continue to and be vested in such new corporation with the same effect as if originally granted thereto, and that such new corporation may at any time hereafter be consolidated with any other railroad company or companies in the same manner and with the same effect as is by this act provided.

SECTION Two. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved this second day of March, A. D. 1881.

VOL. CLXXVII-22

Statement of the Case.

R. F. Parshall, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Minnesota, for personal injuries received by him from the railway company.

The individual plaintiffs in error were shareholders of that company, and each acquired his stock between November, 1884, and the date of the commencement of this suit, but was not a shareholder of either of the companies which formed the Consolidated Company.

The answer of the individual defendants denied liability under the constitution and laws of the State of Minnesota, alleged the incorporation of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Company prior to the adoption of the constitution and statutes, and that it was incorporated in the year 1853, under and pursuant to the provisions of chapter 66 of the Special Laws enacted by the legislature of the Territory of Minnesota, under and by the name of the Minnesota Western Railroad Company, which name was subsequently changed to the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Company, substantially as set forth in the first division of the complaint; that the liability of the stockholders of said Minnesota and St. Louis Railway Company was fixed by said act of incorporation, and not otherwise; and that the constitutional provision and laws referred to in the complaint are not applicable to or binding upon these defendants in that behalf.

The trial court rendered judgment for the defendant in error, which was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the State, 73 Minnesota, 517, and this writ of error was sued out.

On the appeal to the Supreme Court of the State it was assigned as error, among others, that the trial court erred in holding that the state constitution if applied to the defendant railway company did not violate section 10, article 1, of the Constitution of the United States in that the provisions of section 3, article 10, impaired the obligation of the charter contract contained in chapter 66, Laws of 1853, Territory of Minnesota. Also in holding that the constitutional provision of the State, if applied to defendant in error, is not in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, in that the State by and through the provisions of section 3, article 10, as

Counsel for Parties.

sumed to impair and destroy rights theretofore vested in the defendants (plaintiffs in error).

Also in holding that the defendant railway company was not created until the passage of the act of 1881, that the legislature intended by the act to create or did in fact create a new corporation, or intended to or did abridge or modify the rights, privileges or immunities theretofore possessed by the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Company; or if a new corporate entity was created that it did not possess such rights, privileges and immunities, including the exemption from double liability upon its stock created by the act of 1853, and also possessed by the other constituent corporations of the consolidation.

The assignments of error in this court claim that the Supreme Court of the State held, and erred in holding, the constitutional provision imposing liability on stockholders valid against plaintiffs in error, and not to be in violation of the contract created by the act of 1853, the benefits of which act were vested, continued and perpetuated in the plaintiffs in error by the act of 1881, and not to be in violation of that provision of the Constitution of the United States, which prohibits any State from impairing the obligations of a contract, and not in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, in that it assumes to impair and destroy rights vested by the act of 1853 and the act of 1881.

It is also claimed that the court held, and erred in holding, that the constitution of the State if enforced against plaintiff's in error was not in violation of section 10, article 1, of the Constitution of the United States, and did not impair the obligations of the contract between the State and plaintiffs in error, embodied in the act of 1881.

Also that the consolidation of the several railroad corporations pursuant to the act of 1881 created a new corporation.

Mr. William Strauss for plaintiffs in error. Mr. Albert E. Clarke, Mr. W. W. Dudley and Mr. L. T. Michener were on his brief.

Mr. F. W. M. Cutcheon for defendant in error.