RAILROAD LAWS.

REVENUE AND TAXATION.

CHAPTER 103.

ARTICLE IV.

Assessment of and Payment of Taxes by Railroads.

§ 1. That the president or chief officer of each railroad company, or other corporation owning or operating a railroad lying in whole or in part in this State, shall, on or before the first of September in each year, return to the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State, under oath, the total length of such railroad, including the length thereof beyond the limits of the State, and designating its length within this State, and in each county, city, incorporated town and taxing district therein, together with the average value per mile thereof, and in the respective counties, cities, incorporated towns and taxing districts therein, together with the average value per mile thereof, for the purposes of being operated as a carrier of freight and passengers, including engines and cars, and a list of the depot grounds and improvements, and other real estate of the said company and the value thereof, and the respective counties, cities, and incorporated towns in which the same are located. That if any of said railroad companies owns or operates a railroad or railroads out of this State, the president or chief officer of such company shall only be required to return such proportion of the entire value of all its rolling stock as the number of miles of its railroad in this State bears to the whole number of miles operated by said company in and out of this State. Said report shall be made as of the first day of July, and a failure to file said report by the first day of September shall subject the president or chief

officer residing in this State to a fine of one thousand dollars, and fifty dollars for every day after the first day of September that he fails to file said report, to be recovered as indicated by section nine of this article.

§ 2. Should any railroad, or part of a line of railroad, in this State be in the hands or under the control of a receiver or other person, by order or decree of any court in this or any other State, it shall be the duty of such receiver or other person to make, under his oath, the returns and valuations required by the first section of this article; and should the president or chief officer of any railroad company, or such receiver, fail to make said returns and valuations on or before the first day of September in each year, the said Auditor shall proceed and ascertain the facts and values required by this article to be returned, and in such manner and by such means as he may deem best, and at the cost of the company failing to make the returns and values.

§ 3. The Auditor shall lay before the Railroad Commission, on or before the first day of October, the returns made to him under this act, and any schedules and valuations he may have made under the second section of this article. And should the valuations, or any of them, in the judgment of said board, be either too high or too low, they shall correct and equalize the same by a proper increase or decrease thereof. Said board shall keep a record of their proceedings, to be signed by each member present at any meeting; and the said board is hereby authorized. to examine the books and property of any railroad company to ascertain the value of its property, or to have them examined by any suitable disinterested person, to be appointed by them for that purpose.

§ 4. It shall be the duty of the county superintendent of common schools in each county in which a railroad is operated to furnish, on or before the first day of July of each year, to such railroad company or companies, the boundary of each graded or common school district through or into which any part of such railroad or other railroad property is situated; and the county clerk of any county containing any other taxing district through or into which any railroad is located shall make a similar report to such railroad company. Any county superintendent or county clerk failing to make the report, as herein re

quired, or shall make a false report, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars for each offense.

§ 5. All taxes against any railroad company, which shall be levied in any common school district, shall be paid to the superintendent of common schools of the county for the benefit of the district entitled thereto.

§ 6. The provisions of this law shall not be construed to apply to any colored school district: Provided, That the same rate of taxation assessed against the real estate of any railroad company or corporation in any graded common school district or common school district, in any year, shall be assessed against all of the taxable property in such district; and the railroad tax, when collected, shall be paid over to the county superintendent of the county in which the district school-house wherein the tax assessed shall be situated, and shall constitute and be held by the county superintendent as a graded or common district school fund; and the said fund shall be apportioned and distributed by the county superintendent between the white graded common school or white common school district wherein said tax shall be collected, and any colored common school district which shall be located over the same boundary. The distribution shall be in the ratio that the whole number of white children of pupil age and the whole number of colored children of pupil age residing in the district shall bear to the whole number of children, white and colored, residing in the district wherein such tax shall be collected.

§ 7. The same rate of taxation for State purposes which is or may be in any year levied on other real estate, shall be, and is hereby, levied upon the value, so found by said board, of the railroad, rolling stock and real estate of each company; and the same rate of taxation for the purposes of each city, town, county, part of a county, or tax district of any kind, in which any portion of any railroad is located, which is, or may be, in any year, levied on other real estate therein, shall be, and is hereby, levied on the value of the real estate of said company therein, and of the number of miles of such road therein reckoned as of the value of the average of each mile of such railroad, with its rolling stock, as ascertained as aforesaid: Provided,

That railroad bridges spanning any river, which constitutes the boundary or Sate line of the Commonwealth, shall be assessed as of the counties in which they are located, and local tax derived therefrom shall be applied to each city, town, county or tax district in which said bridges are or may be located; and immediately after the said board shall have completed its valuations each year, the Auditor of Public Accounts shall notify the clerk of each county court of the amount so assessed for taxation in his county, and each railroad company of the amount of its assessment for taxation for State purposes and for the purposes of such city, town, county, part of county and tax district. And all existing laws in this State authorizing the assessment and taxation of the property of railroad companies by counties, cities or incorporated towns, are hereby repealed, and no county, city, or incorporated town in this State shall hereafter assess, levy or collect any taxes on the property of railroad companies in this State except as provided by this article.

§ 8. All taxes assessed against any railroad company shall be due and payable thirty days after notice by mail of the assessment is given by the Auditor, and every such company failing to pay its taxes after receiving such thirty days' notice of the amount of such tax shall be deemed delinquent, and a penalty of ten per cent. on the amount of the tax shall attach, and thereafter such tax shall bear interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum. Any railroad company failing to pay its taxes, penalty and interest, after becoming delinquents, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be fined fifty dollars for each day the same remains unpaid, to be recovered by indictment or civil action, of which the Franklin Circuit Court shall have jurisdiction.

§ 9. Taxes, penalties and interest due the Commonwealth from any railroad company may be recovered by the Auditor of Public Accounts, by action in the name of the Commonwealth, in the Franklin Circuit Court; and those due any county, city, incorporated town or taxing district may be recovered by the officer authorized to receive the same, by action in the name of the Commonwealth in any conrt of competent jurisdiction.

The following extract, applicable to railroads, is taken from

the new

CORPORATION LAW.

CHAPTER 171.

AN ACT providing for the creation and regulation of pri

vate corporations.

ARTICLE V. RAILROADS.

SUBDIVISION I.

Railroad companies, organization of.

SUBDIVISION II. General provisions concerning.

SUBDIVISION III. Railroad Commission.

SUBDIVISION IV.

Condemnation of land by.

SUBDIVISION I. RAILROAD COMPANIES, ORGANIZATION OF.

§ 182. Any number of persons, not less than seven, may associate to form a corporation for the purpose of constructing, operating and maintaining a railroad. Such persons shall execute articles of incorporation, which shall specify the name of the proposed railroad, the number of years the corporation is to continue, the amount of its capital stock, and the number of shares into which the same shall be divided; the number of directors, which shall not be less than five nor more than fifteen, and their names; the places from and to which, and the name of each county into or through which it is intended to be constructed, and its length as near as may be. Each subscriber to such articles shall set opposite his name his place of residence and the number of shares subscribed by him. Whenever two hundred and fifty dollars per mile has, in good faith, been subscribed, and twenty per cent. thereof paid in in cash, to the person named in the articles as directors, and an affidavit made to that effect by two of said named directors and attached thereto, a copy of said articles and affidavit shall be filed in the office of the Railroad Commissioners and in the office of the Secretary of State; and when a certificate of such fact is delivered by the said officers to the incorporators, the persons who have sub