v. Nagle 453 v. New York Cent. R. 361, 362, 364, 366, 371, 375, 376, 379, 380, 382, 383, 384 York & M. N. R. v. Hudson 37, 40 512 163 v. Oroville Mining Co. v. Scott 496 32, 43 Young v. Chicago & N. W. R. v. Harrison v. Montgomery & E. R. 203, 271 217 101 v. Vt. & M. R. 126, 127 v. New York Čent. R. 369 Wyatt v. Citizens R. 317 v. St. Louis, K. C., & N. R. 422 v. Great Western R. 316 v. Yarmouth 249 v. Williams 386 Wyman . American Powder Co. 118, 120 v. Eastern R. 174 2. v. Lexington & W. C. R. v. Penobscot & K. R. 284, 411 506, 519, 520 Wynne v. Price 114, 119 v. Hackensack & N. Y. R. 72, Wyoming Coal & T. Co. v. Price 158 451, 459, 460 v. Jersey City & B. R. 251 Zack v. Penn. R. 180, 182, 188 Y. Zeigler v. Day 364, 366, 369 v. Northeastern R. 341, 344, 354 v. South & N. A. R. 463 v. Squires 278 Zimmerman v. Hannibal & St. J. R. 325, v. Van de Bogert 130, 133, 503, 352 506, 507 Yeaton v. Bank of Old Dominion 457 Zoebisch v. Tarbell 275 Yeazel v. Alexander 470 Zorger v. Rapids 108 Yonge v. Kinney 397 THE LAW OF RAILROADS. CHAPTER I. THE EXISTENCE OF THE CORPORATION. Definitions. A corporation is an artificial being, created by law, and composed of individuals, who subsist as a body politic under a special denomination, with the capacity of perpetual succession, and of acting in several respects as a natural person.1 The right of being and acting as a corporation is a franchise granted by the sovereign power. The body thus created has an identity distinct from that of the individual corporators; and its property, rights, and liabilities are distinct from theirs.2 A corporation is private when founded by private individuals, or its stock is owned by them; and it is public when it is created for the purposes of government, or the whole interest is in the pubThe charter of a private corporation, unlike that of a public corporation, is a contract, the obligation of which cannot, under the Constitution of the United States, be impaired by State legislation.3 lic. Railroad companies are private civil corporations, and may be created by special acts of legislation or established under general laws. They are called more specifically commercial and busi 1 2 Kent Com. 267. A corporation's survival of changes in membership has been thought to be better expressed by the terms "continuous identity" than by those of "perpetual succession," as unlimited duration is not an essential condition of corporate existence. Green's Brice's Ultra Vires (2d Am. p. 8. ed.), 2 The stockholder has no legal interest in the property of the corporation. Morgan v. New Orleans, M., & C. R. Co., 1 Woods, 15. 4 8 Dartmouth College v. Woodward, Wheat. 518; 2 Kent Com. 275. 4 Sweatt v. Boston, H., & E. R. Co., 3 Clifford, 339. A company may be a railroad corporation within the meaning of statutes, although authorized to do other kinds of business than transportation by railroad. Kentucky Improvement Co. v. Slack, 100 U. S. 648. |