ELECTRIC LIGHT, HEAT AND POWER COMPANIES-POWERS OF.1-Companies incorporated under the provisions of this act for the supply of light, heat and power, or any of them, to the public by electricity shall, from the date of the letters-patent creating the same, have the powers and be governed, managed and controlled as follows:

Every such corporation shall have the authority to supply light, heat and power or any of them, by electricity, to the public in the borough, town, city or district where it may be located, and to such persons, partnerships and corporations, residing therein or adjacent thereto, as may desire the same, at such prices as may be agreed upon, and the power also, to make, erect and maintain the necessary buildings, machinery and apparatus for supplying such light, heat and power or any of them, and to distribute the same, with the right to enter upon any public street, lane, alley or highway for such purpose, to alter, inspect and repair its system of distribution: Provided, That no company which may be incorporated under the provisions of this act, shall enter upon any street in any city or borough of this commonwealth until after the consent to such entry, of the councils of the city or borough in which such street may be located, shall have been obtained.

EXISTING COMPANIES MAY АССЕРТ АСТ. -Any association of persons or corporations heretofore engaged in the business of supplying light, heat and power or any of them, by electricity, under color of a charter or letters-patent of this commonwealth, issued under the provisions of the act to which this act is a supplement, upon accepting the provisions of this act by writing under seal of the company, filed in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth, and filing therewith its letters-patent or charter, which shall be a surrender and acceptance thereof, shall thereupon be a body corporate hereunder and be entitled to and possessed of all the privileges, immunities, franchises and powers conferred by this act upon corporations to be created under the same, and all the property, rights, easements and privileges belonging to said associations and corporations, theretofore acquired by gift, grant, conveyance, municipal ordinance or assignment, or otherwise, upon such acceptance as aforesaid, shall be and hereby are ratified, approved, confirmed and assured unto such acceptors and corporations, with like effect and to all intents and purposes, as if the same had been originally acquired by and under the authority of this act, and such company or corporation shall thereafter be governed by the provisions of this act. And the governor shall forthwith issue to the said acceptors letters-patent under this act, under the same name as the company bore which surrendered its charter or letters-patent, and for the same territory, and the corpo

ration shall receive credit for any bonus paid by the former corporation: Provided, That this act shall not be so construed as to permit any corporation accepting its provisions, to enter into any city or borough without assent of councils, except in so far as the councils thereof have heretofore, or shall hereafter, give their assent thereto.

42. Real Estate Companies.

CAPITAL STOCK-POWERS. - The capital stock of corporations for the purchase and sale of real estate, or for holding, leasing and selling real estate, and for maintaining or erecting and maintaining walls or banks for the protection of low lying lands, shall consist in the aggregate at no time of more than six hundred thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of fifty dollars each; the said corporations shall have the right to purchase, take, hold and enjoy real estate, in fee simple, on lease or upon ground rent, as well that already purchased or acquired as that hereafter purchased or acquired, to improve, lease, mortgage and sell the same in such parts and parcels, and on such terms as to time of payment as they may determine, and to convey the same to the purchaser, in fee simple or for any less estate, or upon ground rents, and in like manner to mortgage, sell, convey or extinguish any ground rent reserved out of any real estate so sold; and may maintain or erect and maintain walls or banks of stone, earth or other material for the protection of meadow and low lying lands from the encroachments of water: Provided, That the quantity of real estate held at any one time, in cities or boroughs, shall not exceed five hundred acres, and outside thereof shall not exceed ten thousand acres, but any number of acres desired, may be protected from encroachment by water.

POWERS OF REAL ESTATE, HOTEL, DROVE YARD AND OTHER COMPANIES.2-Companies incorporated under the provisions of this act, or similar companies already incorporated and accepting the same, for holding, leasing and selling real estate or for the establishment and maintenance of a hotel or boarding-house, or opera and markethouse, hotel and drove yard, or both, any or either, shall have the right and power to take, receive, hold and enjoy, either by conveyance, [in] fee simple or for any less estate, or upon ground rent, or for both, all the buildings, lots of lands, premises, [and] appurtenances necessary to the successful maintenance and carrying on of such business; shall have the power to execute the necessary and proper covenant for securing the payment of ground rent on any of such lands and premises; shall have power to sell and convey, let or lease, all or any parts of said lots, or the tenements and buildings thereon erected, either for cash or on ground rent, or partly for cash and partly on ground rent, and shall have power to hold or erect such buildings, fixtures and appurtenances, and procure such furniture and equipments as may be necessary for the success of its business; and the said corporation may borrow money, in the manner provided in section thirteen of this act,1 to an amount equal to the capital stock of the company paid up, and secure the same by mortgage upon the said lots, buildings and fixtures and appurtenances.

43. Safe Deposit Companies.

* Safe deposit companies shall have power to receive upon deposit for safe keeping, jewelry, plate, stocks, bonds, notes and valuable property of every kind, upon terms to be prescribed by the by-laws of such corporation, which by-laws shall at all times be posted up in the place or places of business of such corporations.

44. Building and Loan Associations.3

* Building and loan associations incorporated under the provisions of this act, shall have the powers, and from the date of the letterspatent creating the same, when not otherwise provided in this act, be governed, managed and controlled as follows :

POWERS. They shall have the power and franchise of loaning or advancing to the stockholders thereof the moneys accumulated from

1 Supra, p. 36.

* Act 29 April, 1874, § 35, as amended by Act 17 April, 1876, 29; P. L. 36.

*The Act of 10 April, 1879 [P. L. 16], is a general statute regulating building associations, and has been here woven in with the Act of 1874, the arrangements of the present section being based upon the doctrine that the provisions of the later statute upon the same subject-matter as the former acts operated as a repeal of those former provisions, saving all rights previously acquired, and more particularly as the tenth section of the Act of 1879 repeals all acts inconsistent therewith; a doctrine seemingly sanctioned by Booz's Ap., 109 Pa. 598; Rhoads v. Ass'n, 82 Pa. 187; Nusser v. Com., 25 Pa. 126; Johnston's Estate, 33 Pa. 511. Lest, however, in the absence of judicial interpretation, this arrangement should prove misleading, and as many associations chartered prior to the Act of 1879 have not accepted its provisions, the omitted portions of the Act of 1874 are inserted in notes to their appropriate places.

* Act 29 April, 1874, § 37, cl. 1; PL. 96.

Id. The insertion of unauthorized provisions in the charter will not affect the valid provisions: Albright v. Ass'n, 102 Pa. 411; Becket v. Ass'n, 88 Pa. 211.

time to time,1 and the power and right to secure the re-payment of such moneys, and the performance of the other conditions upon which the loans are to be made, by bond and mortgage or other security, as well as the power and right to purchase or erect houses, and to sell, convey, lease or mortgage the same at pleasure to their stockholders or others for the benefit of their stockholders, in such manner, also, that the premiums taken by the said associations, for the preference or priority of such loans shall not be deemed usurious, and so, also, that in case of non-payment of instalments, premiums or interest by borrowing stockholders, for six months, payment of principal, premiums and interest, without deducting the premium paid, or interest thereon, may be enforced by proceeding on their securities according to law.

PREMIUMS MAY BE PAID IN INSTALMENTS. - It shall be lawful for any mutual savings fund, or building and loan association, now incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated, in addition to dues and interest, to charge and receive the premium or bonus bid by a stockholder for preference or priority of right to a loan in periodical instalments; and such premium or bonus so paid in instalments shall not be deemed usurious, but shall be taken to be a payment as it falls due in contradistinction to a premium charged and paid in advance; and in so far as said premium or bonus so charged and paid, in addition to dues and interest, shall be in excess of two dollars for each periodical payment, the same shall be lawful, any law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

INTEREST IN ADVANCE. 5-It shall also be lawful for any mutual savings fund or building and loan association to charge and deduct interest in advance, in lieu of premiums for preference or priority of right to a loan.

CONTENTS OF CERTIFICATE. - Provided, That the certificate of incorporation of each association hereafter to be incorporated, and the certificate provided in section nine of this act for those heretofore incorporated, shall set forth whether the premium or bonus bid for

1 The association is not bound to inquire for what purpose the money is to be applied by the borrowers: Juniata Ass'n v. Mixell, 84 Pa. 316; Relief Fund v. Tugshore, 8 Luz. Leg. Reg. 199; Hagerman v. Ass'n, 25 Ohio St. 186.

2 When a mortgage is conditioned for the payment of the loan and of monthly dues, repayment of principal and interest will not necessarily extinguish the obligation if the association desires to retain it as security for the dues: Everham v. Ass'n, 47 Pa. 352.

* Ass'n v. Hopple, 12 Weekly Notes Cas. 222.

* Act 10 April, 1879, 81; P. L. 16.

the prior right to a loan shall be deducted therefrom in advance or paid in periodical instalments, or whether interest in advance shall be deducted from the loan in lieu of premium or bonus.

CAPITAL STOCK. -The capital stock of any corporation created for such purposes by virtue of this act, shall at no time consist in the aggregate of more than one million dollars, to be divided into shares of such denomination, not exceeding five hundred dollars each, and in such number as the corporators may, in the application for their charter specify: Provided, That the capital stock may be issued in series, but no such series shall at any issue exceed in the aggregate five hundred thousand dollars, the instalments on which stock are to be paid at such time and places as the by-laws shall appoint; no periodical payment of such instalments to be made exceeding two dollars on each share, and said stock may be paid off and retired as the bylaws shall direct.2

UNPAID INSTALMENTS TO BE A LIEN. Every share of stock shall be subject to a lien for the payment of unpaid instalments and other charges incurred thereon under the provisions of the charter and by-laws, and the by-laws may prescribe the form and manner of enforcing such lien; new shares of stock may be issued in lieu of the shares withdrawn or forfeited; the stock may be issued in one or in successive series, in such amount as the board of directors or the stockholder may determine.

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