purpose whatever, except for deposits. The capital stock and the assets of the corporation are a security to depositors and stockholders, depositors having the priority of security over the stockholders, but the by-laws may provide that the same security shall extend to deposits made by stockholders. [See Stats. 1870, p. 130, 21; 1862, p. 199, 2 10; 1862, p. 199, 22.]

574. Property which may be owned, and how Disposed of. Savings and loan corporations may purchase, hold, and convey real and personal property, as follows:

1. The lot and building in which the business of the corporation is carried on, the cost of which must not exceed one hundred thousand dollars; except on a vote of two thirds of the stockholders, the corporation may increase the sum to an amount not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand dollars;

2. Such as may have been mortgaged, pledged, or conveyed to it in trust, for its benefit in good faith, for money loaned in pursuance of the regular business of the corporation;

3. Such as may have been purchased at sales under pledges, mortgages, or deeds of trust made for its benefit, for money so loaned, and such as may be conveyed to it by borrowers in satisfaction and discharge of loans made thereon;

4. No such corporation must purchase, hold, or convey real estate in any other case or for any other purpose; and all real estate described in subdivision three of this section, must be sold by the corporation within five years after the title thereto is vested in it by purchase or otherwise;

5. No corporation must purchase, own, or sell personal property, except such as may be requisite for its immediate. accommodation for the convenient transaction of its business, mortgages on real estate, bonds, securities or evidences of indebtedness, public or private, gold and silver bullion, and United States mint certificates of ascertained value, and evidences of debt issued by the United States; 6. No corporation must purchase, hold, or convey bonds, securities, or evidences of indebtedness, public or private, except bonds of the United States, of the State of Califor

nia, and of the counties, cities, or cities and counties, or towns of the State of California, unless such corporation has a capital stock or reserved fund paid in, of not less than $300,000. [Approved March 18, 1874. Immediate effect.]

575. Married women and minors may own stock in their own right. Married women and minors may, in their own right, make and draw deposits and draw dividends, and give valid receipts therefor. [See Stats. 1862, p. 199, ?? 14, 15; 1864, p. 158, 8 4; 1870, p. 132, ¿? 2, 3.]

576. May issue transferable certificates of deposits-Special certificates. Savings and loan corporations may issue general certificates of deposit, which are transferable, as in other cases, by indorsement and delivery; may issue, when requested by the depositor, special certificates, acknowledging the deposit by the person therein named of a specified sum of money, and expressly providing on the face of such certificate that the sum so deposited and therein named may be transferred only on the books of the corporation; payment thereafter made by the corporation to the depositor named in such certificate, or to his assignee named upon the books of the corporation, or, in case of death, to the legal representative of such person, of the sum for which such special certificate was issued, discharges the corporation from all further liability on account of the money so paid. [See Stats. 1867-8, p. 459, % 1.]

A certificate of deposit issued by a savings institution, payable to the depositor or order, is a negotiable instrument, and must be produced and delivered up upon demand for payment. (Fell's Point Savings Institution v. Weedor, 18 Md. 320.)

577. To provide Reserve Fund for the payment of losses. Savings and loan corporations may prescribe by their bylaws the time and conditions on which repayment is to be made to depositors; but whenever there is any call by depositors for repayment of a greater amount than the corporation may have disposable for that purpose, the directors or officers thereof must not make any new loans or investments of the funds of the depositors, or of the earnings thereof, until such excess of call has ceased. The directors

of any such corporation having no capital stock must retain, on each dividend day, at least five per cent. of the net profits of the corporation, to constitute a Reserve Fund, which must be invested in the same manner as other funds of the corporation, and must be used toward paying any losses which the corporation may sustain in pursuing its lawful business. The corporation may provide by its bylaws for the disposal of any excess in the Reserve Fund over one hundred thousand dollars, and the final disposal, upon the dissolution of the corporation, of the Reserve Fund, or of the remainder thereof, after payment of losses. [See Stats. 1862, p. 201, ¿ 11; 1870, pp. 523, 822.]

578. Prohibition on Director and Officer, and what vacates office. No director or officer of any savings and loan corporation must, directly or indirectly, for himself or as the partner or agent of others, borrow any of the deposits or other funds of such corporation, nor must he become an indorser or surety for loans to others, nor in any manner be an obligor for moneys borrowed of or loaned by such corporation. The office of any director or officer who acts in contravention of the provisions of this section immediately thereupon becomes vacant.

See as to penalty for officers overdrawing account, § 561 Penal Code, in Appendix.

579. Definition of phrase "create debts." Receiving deposits, issuing certificates of deposit, checks, and bills of exchange and the like, in the transaction of the business of savings and loan corporations, must not be construed to be the creation of debts within the meaning of the phrase "create debts," in Section 309.

An Act to authorize the husband or wife or next of kin of a deceased person, to collect and receive of any savings bank any deposit in such bank, when the same does not exceed the sum of three hundred dollars.

Approved February 18, 1874.

SECTION 1. The surviving husband or wife of any deceased person, or if no husband or wife be living, then the next of kin of such decedent, may, without procuring letters of administration, collect of any savings bank any sum which said deceased may have left on a deposit in

such bank at the time of his or her death; provided said deposit shall not exceed the sum of three hundred dollars.

SEC. 2. Any savings bank, upon receiving an affidavit stating that said depositor is dead, and that affiant is the surviving husband or wife, as the case may be, or stating that decedent left no husband or wife, and that affiant is the next of kin of said decedent, and entitled to distribution, and that the whole amount that decedent left on deposit in any and all savings banks, or bank of deposit in this State, does not exceed the sum of three hundred dollars, may pay to said affiant any deposit of said decedent, if the same does not exceed the sum of three hundred dollars, and the receipt of such affiant shall be a sufficient acquittance therefor.

SEC. 3. Any person who shall make a false affidavit in regard to the matters specified in this act, shall be deemed guilty of perjury.

SEC. 4. This act shall take effect from and after its passage.

TITLE XI.

MINING CORPORATIONS.

SECTION 584. Repealed.

585. Directors to file certificates of proceedings in offices of county

clerks and Secretary of State.

586. Transfer agencies.

587. Stock issued at transfer agencies.

584. Section five hundred and eighty-four of the Civil Code is repealed. [In effect April 3, 1876.]

The former section had a provision relating to the removal of the principal office of a mining corporation; but by the amendment of 1875-6, in § 321, provision is made for such removal applicable alike to all corporations.

585. Directors to file Certificates of Proceedings in offices of County Clerks and Secretary of State. When the publication provided for in the preceding section has been completed, the directors of the corporation must file in the offices of the clerks of the counties from and to which such change

has been made, and in the office of the Secretary of State, certified copies of the written consent of the stockholders to such change, and of the notice of such change, and proof of publication; also, a certificate that the proposed removal has taken place; and thereafter the principal place of business of the corporation is at the place to which it is removed. [See Stats. 1863-4, p. 76, 8 2.]

For the publication required, see § 321; the preceding section having been repealed.

586. Transfer Agencies. Any corporation organized in this State for the purpose of mining, or carrying on mining operations in or without this State, may establish and maintain agencies in other States of the United States, for the transfer and issuing of their stock; and a transfer or issue of the same at any such transfer agency, in accordance with the provisions of its by-laws, is valid and binding as fully and effectually for all purposes as if made upon the books of such corporation at its principal office within this State. The agencies must be governed by the by-laws and the directors of the corporation. [See Stats. 1863-4, p. 429, 88 1, 3.]

587. Stock issued at Transfer Agencies. All stock of any such corporation, issued at a transfer agency, must be signed by the president and secretary of the corporation, and countersigned at the time of its issue by the agent having charge of the transfer agency. No stock must be issued at a transfer agency unless the certificate of stock, in lieu of which the same is issued, is at the time surrendered for cancellation. [See Stats. 1863-4, p. 429, 2; Stats. 1871–2, p. 413.] An Act for the protection of Miners.

Approved March 16, 1872.

SECTION 1. It shall not be lawful for any corporation, association, owner, or owners of any quartz mining claims within the State of California, where such corporation, association, owner, or owners employ twelve men daily, to sink down into such mine or mines any perpendicular shaft or incline beyond a depth from the surface of three hundred feet without providing a second mode of egress from such mine, by shaft or tunnel, to connect with the main shaft at a depth of not less than one hundred feet from the surface.