Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

I. ACTS:

MINING.

The laws relating to mines, mining and mining regulations in this Province have been consolidated and are embraced in the "Mines Act, 1892," and the "Mines and Mining Lands Act, 1894."

II. CROWN TITLE:

Mines and minerals upon land located, sold or granted within the limits of the free grant territory are reserved from the location and are the property of the Crown.

In any letters patent for lands granted under the "Public Lands Act" for agricultural purposes after May 4th, 1891, mines, minerals and mining rights are reserved and are constituted a property separate from the surface of the soil, unless otherwise provided in the patent or grant from the Crown.

III. DAMAGES:

The "Mines Act, 1892," contemplates that the locatee on Crown lands, as well as the grantee or lessee, is entitled to compensation for injury or damage to the surface rights at the hands of the owner or lessee of the mining rights thereafter granted in respect of the same land, and it empowers the director of mines to order and prescribe the manner in which such compensation shall be assessed and awarded.

IV. SURFACE AND MINING RIGHTS:

Where the mines, minerals and mining rights are reserved to the Crown, the owner of any surface rights (if a patent has not been granted or applied for) may make application and shall have priority in respect of such application for a mining lease or grant thereof, upon payment to the department of the purchase money or rent. Valuators appointed by the Director of Mines shall settle disputes arising between the owner of the surface rights and the owner of the mine.

V. MINERALS ON CROWN LANDS:

Any person or persons may explore for mines or minerals on any Crown lands, surveyed or unsurveyed, and not for the time being marked or staked out and occupied as hereinafter mentioned.

Crown lands supposed to contain ores or minerals may be sold as mining lands or may when situate within a mining division be occupied and worked as "mining claims" under miners' licenses. Such lands so sold, when situate in unsurveyed territory or in townships surveyed into sections or lots, shall be sold in blocks to be called "mining locations," ("VII. Locations"), or may be leased ("VIII. Leases").

The Commissioner of Crown Lands is empowered to purchase not more than two diamond drills to be used in exploratory drilling for ores or minerals in the Province, under rules and regulations to be made by the LieutenantGovernor-in-Council. The use of said drills is allowed to parties desiring the same in searching for mineral, upon application to the Bureau of Mines, and payment of certain charges.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Inspectors shall keep books for recording mining claims, which books may be inspected by any person on payment of a fee of twenty cents, and every licensee who has staked out a mining claim shall within thirty days thereafter give notice thereof in writing to the inspector of the division wherein such is located.

The discoverer of a new vein shall be entitled to two mining claims if the discovery is distant (if on a known vein or lode) at least three miles from the nearest known mine or discovery on the same vein or lode.

A party wall fifteen feet thick shall be left between claims and shall be kept clear. Any person removing party walls is bound to construct a new mode of access to the water in no wise more difficult as an approach than the one destroyed by the removal of the party wall. No person shall remove or disturb any stake, picket, or other mark, placed as aforesaid, under penalty of twenty dollars and costs.

No person shall at the same time occupy more than one mining claim on Crown lands, except where mining claims have been rendered temporarily unworkable, in which case the inspector shall on the application of the licensee and on the receipt of one dollar, make an entry in the book to be kept by him of the cause or reason for the claim not being worked.

A mining claim shall be deemed to be forfeited and abandoned in case the annual rent thereof has not been prepaid, or if the mining claim remains unworked for the

space of three months after the same has been first staked out, or remains unworked for the space of fifteen days after the expiration of the said three months. VII. LOCATIONS:

In unsurveyed territory within the districts of Algoma, Thunder Bay and Rainy river, and that part of the district of Nipissing which lies north of the French river, Lake Nipissing and the Mattawa river, every regular mining location shall be rectangular in shape, and the bearings of the outlines thereof shall be due north and south, and east and west astronomically, and such location shall be of one of the following dimensions, viz: Eighty chains in length by forty chains in width, containing three hundred and twenty acres; or forty chains square, containing one hundred and sixty acres; or forty chains in length by twenty chains in width, containing eighty acres; or twenty chains square, containing forty

acres.

Where a mining location in the unsurveyed lands in the territory aforesaid borders upon a lake or river, a road allowance of one chain in width shall be reserved along the margin of the lake or river, and the width of the location shall front on the road allowance, and the bearings of the other outlines of the location shall be due north and south, and due east and west astronomically; and the location shall otherwise conform to the requirements of the preceding paragraph as nearly as the nature of the land will admit. But the Commissioner of Crown Lands may, if public interest will not be prejudiced, specially direct that such reservation shall not be made in the case of any island or islands which contain not more than thirty acres.

In townships in the said territory, surveyed, or hereafter to be surveyed into sections or lots, every mining location after such survey shall consist of a half, a quarter, an eighth or a sixteenth of a section or lot as the case may be, but so that the area of such mining location shall not be less than forty acres. In all patents and leases for mining locations in the said territory, there shall be a reservation for roads of five per cent of the quantity of land granted. In the unsurveyed lands not situate within the limits of the said territory mining locations shall be as may be defined by order in council, but so that the area of any such location shall be not less than forty acres. Mining locations in unsurveyed territory must be surveyed by a provincial land surveyor, and be connected with some known point in previous surveys, or with some other known point or boundary (so that the tracts may be laid down on the office maps of the territory in the Department of Crown Lands) at the cost of the applicants, who shall be required to furnish with their application the surveyor's plan, field notes and description thereof, showing a survey in accordance with the act and to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Crown Lands.

The price per acre of all Crown lands to be sold as mining lands or locations in the districts of Algoma, Thunder Bay, Rainy river and that part of the district of Nipissing which lies north of the French river, Lake Nipissing and the Mattawa river shall be: If in a surveyed township and within six miles of any railway, $3; if elsewhere in surveyed territory, $2.50; if within six miles of any railway but in unsurveyed territory, $2.50; and if situate elsewhere in unsurveyed territory, $2. The price per acre of all other Crown lands sold as mining lands or locations and lying south of the aforesaid lake and rivers shall be: If in a surveyed township and within six miles of any railway, $2; and if situate elsewhere, $1.50.

The grantee and owner of any mining location, or lot or parcel sold and patented under the preceding section shall, during the seven years immediately following the issue of the patent therefor, expend in stripping, or in opening up mines, in sinking shafts, or in other actual mining operations, where the quantity contained in the patent exceeds one hundred and sixty acres, four dollars per acre during the first seven years; and where the quantity contained in the patent is one hundred and sixty acres or less, five dollars per acre during the first seven years. The said expenditure may consist of labor actually performed by grown men at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per day, or of payment therefor, or for explosives or other mining materials for use on the particular parcel of land. In default of such expenditure during the said period, the mines and minerals with the right of access thereto and removal therefrom, and all rights of mining upon, under or connected with any such lot or part or so much thereof as shall be owned by the person who has failed to make the expenditure in respect of the portion or parcel owned by him, shall upon the report of the Director of Mines that such expenditure has not been made, confirmed by an order of the LieutenantGovernor-in-Council, revert to the Crown. But the grantee or owner shall retain all his other interest in the land or soil as agricultural land, distinct from the mines and minerals.

VIII. LEASES:

Instead of granting any mining lands in fee simple, the same may be leased or demised for a term of ten years with right of renewal for a further term of ten years

ONTARIO LAWS.

at the same rental, if the covenants and conditions have been performed and fulfilled. the rental for the first year shall be one dollar per acre, Unless otherwise provided and thereafter the sum of twenty-five cents per acre per annum payable in advance. piration of the second Such lease may at the experformed), be renewed for a term of twenty years, at term (if conditions have been such rental as the regulations shall provide, and so from time to time the same may be renewed at the expiration of every twenty years. stripping and in opening up mines, or in sinking shafts, There shall be expended in or in other actual mining operations, the same sum upon lands leased as is provided shall be expended in case of sales or grants, and within the same time and in default of such expenditure, the lease shall be forfeited and become void. The lessee may at any time during the demised term, upon the payment of all rent due and the performance of all covenants and conditions, become the purchaser of the lands demised to him, and in such case the sum paid as the first year's rental shall be treated as part of the purchase money. payment of rent, the lease shall be forfeited and become If default is made in void; but the lessee may defeat forfeiture by paying rent within ninety days from the date appointed for payment thereof.

The patents of all Crown lands sold as mining lands shall contain a reservation of all pine trees standing or being on said lands, which pine trees shall continue to be the property of Her Majesty, and any person holding license to cut timber or saw logs on such lands may at any time during continuance of such lease enter upon said lands and cut and remove such trees. The patentees and those claiming under them may cut and use such trees as are necessary for building, fencing, and fuel, on the land so patented, or for any other purpose essential to the working of the mines thereon; and may also cut and dispose of all trees in clearing the land for cultivation. All such timber cut for purposes of timber or saw logs shall be subject to dues.

IX. LICENSES:

The Director of the Bureau of Mines may, on payment of a fee of ten dollars, grant to the party applying for the same a license to be called a "miner's license." miner's license shall be in force for one year from the Every date thereof, and shall not be transferable, except with the consent of the Director of the Bureau of Mines; and only one person shall be named therein, who shall be called the licensee, and who, before the expiration of the license, or within not later than ten clear days thereafter, shall have the right to a renewal of the license by the director of the Bureau on payment to him of the like fee of ten dollars, or such other sum as may then be the fee fixed by law or regulation of a miner's license, but in the case of a remote mining division the Commissioner of Crown Lands may authorize and empower the inspector of the division to issue or renew such license. A miner's license shall not be renewed until after the payment of the fee of ten dollars. The licensee has power personally and not through another to mine according to the license, or the licensee may organize a company to work the claims acquired in right of such.

X. MINERAL BOUNTY:

The sum of twenty-five thousand dollars has been appropriated and set apart for the purpose of encouraging miners to open up and work the iron ore deposits of the Province, such moneys being designated and known as the "Iron Mining Fund." may, with the authority of and under such regulations The Treasurer of the Province as may be made from time to time by the LieutenantGovernor-in-Council, pay out of the said fund, to the miners or producers of ore, upon all iron ores which shall be raised or mined and smelted in the Province for a period of five years from the first day of July, 1894, the equivalent of one dollar per ton of the pig metal product of such ores, subject to regulations governing said payments to be approved by the Legislative Assembly. Should a larger quantity of ore be raised, or mined and smelted in any one year than the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars will be sufficient to meet the payments upon at the rate aforesaid, then payments to the miners or producers thereof shall be made upon a pro rata basis, so that no more than twenty-five thousand dollars shall be paid for the production of ore in any one year.

XI. MINING COMPANIES:

Any mining company may from time to time dispose of shares and stock, at such times, to such persons, on such terms and conditions, at such premium or discount, and in such manner as the directors think advantageous to the company.

Governor-in-Council

Where application is hereafter made to the Lieutenantpatent, under "The Ontario Joint Stock Companies Letfor the incorporation by letters ters Patent Act," of any company for mining purposes, such letters patent may, if the petition of the applicants so requires, contain a provision that no liability beyond the amount actually paid upon stock in such company by the subscribers thereto or holders

thereof shall attach to such subscriber or holder. In such

case every certificate of stock issued by the company shall bear upon the face thereof, distinctly written or printed in red ink, after the name of the company, the words: "Incorporated under Section Eighteen of an Act relating to Mines and Mining Lands," and where such stock is issued subject to further assessments, the word: "assessable," or, if not subject to further assessments the word: "non-assessable," Every mining company, the charter of which contains as the case may be. the said provisions, shall have written or printed on its charter prospectuses, stock certificates, bonds, contracts, agreements, notices, advertisements, and other official publications, and in all bills of exchange, promissory notes, endorsements, checks, and orders for money or goods purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the company, and in all bills of parcels, invoices, and receipts of the company, immediately after or under the name of such company, and shall have engraved upon its seal, the words: "non-personal liability"; and every such company which refuses or knowingly neglects to comply with this provision shall incur a penalty of twenty dollars for every day during which such name is not so kept written or printed, and every director and manager of the company who knowingly and wilfully authorizes or permits such default shall be liable to the like penalty. In the event of any call or calls on stock in a company so incorporated remaining unpaid by the subscriber thereto or holder thereof for a period of sixty days after notice and demand of payment, such stock may be declared to be in default, and the secretary of the company may advertise such stock for sale at public auction to the highest bidder, for cash.

No shareholder or subscriber for stock in any company so incorporated shall be personally liable for non-payment of any calls made upon his stock, beyond the forfeiture and sale in the event of non-payment of such calls, of the amount, if any, already paid on the stock held or subscribed for; nor shall such shareholder or subscriber be personally liable for any debt contracted by the company or for any sum payable by the company, beyond the amount, if any, paid by him upon such stock. XII. MINES REGULATIONS:

The Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council may make such regulations as he deems necessary or expedient, for the appointment of arbitrators or mining boards to hear and determine appeals from the decisions of inspectors of divisions; for the prescribing, defining, and establishing the powers, duties, and modes of procedure of the arbitrators or mining boards; for the opening, construction, maintenance and using of roads through and over mining claims, mining locations or lands hereafter sold as mining lands; and for the opening, construction, maintenance and using of ditches, aqueducts, and raceways through or over such claims, locations or lands, for the conveyance and passage of water for mining purposes; and generally for the carrying out of this act; and such regulations, after publication in the Ontario Gazette, shall have the force and effect of law.

Provision is also made for the prevention of accidents; in regard to the giving notice of opening and abandoning of mines, and for fencing of abandoned mines. The act also defines the duties and powers of inspectors; provides penalties for obstructing inspector; and also provides general rules in regard to ventilation, gunpowder and blasting; spaces in horse roads, fencing of shafts, securing of shafts, safety from water, head covers, chains, hoisting machinery, inclination of signaling, overladders, gauges to boilers, and safety valves; and for all other general measures of safety. XIII. RETURNS:

Returns are to be made by owners of mines and their agents on or before the first of December in every year, to the Bureau of Mines, showing correctly the number of persons ordinarily employed in or about such mine, the quantity in statute weight of the mineral dressed, and of the undressed mineral which has been sold, treated, or used during the year, and the value or estimated value thereof.

XIV. ROYALTIES:

or

All royalties, taxes or duties, which by any patent issued prior to May 4th, 1891, had been reserved, imposed, made payable upon or in respect of ores or minerals extracted from the lands granted by such patents and lying within the Province are repealed and abandoned. and such lands, ores and minerals are henceforth free and exempt from every such royalty, tax, or duty; and all reservations of gold and silver mines contained in any patent issued prior to the date aforesaid, granting in fee simple lands situate within the Province, are rescinded: and all such mines in or upon such lands are deemed to have been granted in fee simple as part of such lands, and to have passed with such lands to the subsequent and present owners thereof in fee simple; but the above provisions are not to be construed to apply to lands patented under the "Free Grants and Homestead Act."

All ores and minerals mined, wrought, or taken from lands located, sold, and granted, or leased by the Crown on or after May 4th, 1891, are subject to a royalty to the

Crown for the use of the Province, reckoned at the following rates, whether such royalty be reserved in the grant, patent or lease, or not: 1. Silver, nickel, or nickel and copper, three per cent. 2. Iron ore, not exceeding two per cent. 3. All other ores, such royalty as shall be from time to time imposed by order-in-council, not exceeding three per cent. The royalty thus reserved is not imposed or collected upon any ores mined, wrought, or taken, until after seven years from the date of the patent or lease. All royalties must be calculated upon the value of the ores or minerals at the pit's mouth, less the actual cost of labor and explosives for mining, and raising the same to the surface.

The act of 1894 amends the above provision as follows: "There shall be reserved and payable to the Crown on ores and minerals taken from the lands located, sold, granted or leased after the first day of May, 1891, and on ores and minerals taken from all lands which may be hereafter located, sold, granted or leased by the Crown, until the first day of January, 1900, a uniform charge at the rate of two per cent on the ores mentioned in articles (1) and (2) and a charge of not more than two per cent on the ores mentioned in article (3), when imposed by order of the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council, such charge

to be calculated upon the value of the ore, less the actual cost of raising the ore to the surface and the subsequent treatment thereof for the market."

This provision does not apply to the mining lands which may be located, granted, sold or leased by the Crown from and after the first day of January, 1900; or upon or in respect of any mines thereon, or mineral which shail be mined, wrought, or taken therefrom, nor does it require the payment of any charge until after the expiration of the time provided for above, nor until after the expiration of the time, and in the case of original discovery of ores or minerals thus provided for: "Where the prospector or explorer who originally discovers valuable ore or mineral on or in a vein or lode, at least three miles from the nearest known mine or discovery on the same vein or lode, or in or upon a vein or lode theretofore unknown or undiscovered at a distance of one mile from any other known or discovered mine, lode or vein, and in the patent, grant or lease thereof such prospector or explorer is described as the original discoverer, the grantee or lessee, his excutors, administrators or assigns shall be exempt from paying royalty on any part of the ore, produce or profit of such mine to the Province for a term of fifteen years from the date of such patent, grant, or lease."

[blocks in formation]

An alien may acquire, hold, dispose of and in every respect control real property as if he or she were a citizen of this State. The laws of descent are the same for aliens as for residents and citizens. (Code, Section 2988.) A woman being an alien shall not be thereby barred of her dower (Code, Section 2974), but a woman residing out of this State shall not be endowed of any lands in this State unless her husband died seized thereof. (Code, Section 2974.)

II. ASSIGNMENTS:

No general assignment of an insolvent for the benefit of creditors is valid unless it be made for the benefit of all the creditors in proportion to the amount of their respective claims; and such an assignment discharges all attachments that have not proceeded to judgment when the assignment is filed. In these latter cases the costs and expenses of the attachment (which is generally considered to mean all the court expenses of the case) are paid as a preferred charge against the estate: and the claim sued upon is entitled, without further presentation, to share pro rata with other claims. In case of a general assignment for all creditors the assent of the creditors is presumed. (Code, Sections 3173, 3174.) The assignee

must be a resident of the same county with the assignor. Every assignment shall be in writing, and shall be duly acknowledged and recorded as are conveyances of real estate. Upon application of two or more creditors, a meeting of the creditors may be held under the direction of the county clerk, and a new assignee elected. (Code, Section 3175.) Any creditor may claim debts not due as well as those that are due, but cn debts not due a reasonable abatement shall be made where they are not drawing interest, and all claims presented within three months from the publication by the assignee of the notice of his appointment shall be paid in full before any other claims presented afterward. (Code, Section 3184.) If the estate pays fifty per cent of the indebtedness over and above the expenses of the assignment the assignor shall be freed from any liability on account of any unsatisfied portion of the indebtedness existing against him prior to the making of the assignment. (Code, Section 3187.) If, however, the creditor is a citizen of another state, and did not participate in the assignment proceedings, his claim is not affected. (Main vs. Messner, 17 Oregon, 78.) While no preferences can be made in the deed of assignment, the debtor can prefer one or more creditors by a chattel mortgage, or by transferring property in absolute payment of the debt.

III. ATTACHMENT:

The plaintiff, at the time of issuing the summons, or at any time thereafter, may have the property of the defendant attached as security for any judgment that may be recovered: 1. In an action upon a contract, expressed or implied, for the direct payment of money not secured by any lien, mortgage or pledge upon real or personal property, or if so secured, when such security has been rendered nugatory by the act of the defendant. 2. In an action upon a contract, expressed or implied, against a non-resident defendant. (Code, Section 144.) Upon filing an undertaking of indemnity conditioned in favor of defendant for a sum not less than one hundred dollars, and equal to the amount for which judgment is prodemanded, the writ must be issued by the clerk; vided the plaintiff or some one in his behalf shall file an affidavit showing: 1. That the defendant is indebted to the plaintiff upon a contract for the payment of money. 2. That the payment of the same has not been secured by any lien, mortgage or pledge, or that the same was SC secured, but that such security has been rendered nugatory by the act of defendant, or that defendant is a non-resident of the State. 3. That the sum for which the attachment is asked is an actual, bona fide, existing debt, and that attachment is not sought nor the action prosecuted to hinder, delay or defraud any creditor of the defendant. (Code, Section 146, and Laws 1895, page 58.)

All property not exempt is liable to attachment. Claims not due cannot be sued upon. An attachment not reduced to judgment is dissolved by a general assignment for creditors, but not by the death of the defendant. Attachment proceedings have no effect on the time for answering, which is fixed by law.

IV. CLAIMS AGAINST ESTATES:

The County Court has exclusive probate jurisdiction. Every executor or administrator shall forthwith publish a notice in a newspaper setting forth the fact of his appointment, and notifying all persons to present their claims, properly verified, at a place therein specified, within six months from the date of the notice; and all claims presented within that time will be fully paid before any that may be presented thereafter, and so on in periods of six months each. The executor must file accounts showing his conduct of affairs in April and October of each year. No suit or action shall be commenced

against an executor or administrator within six months of his appointment; and in no case until the claim sued on shall have been presented to and disallowed by such executor or administrator. If the claim be presented after the expiration of six months the executor or administrator shall be liable only to the extent of assets in his hands when the summons is served on him.

V. COURTS:

The Supreme Court has only appellate jurisdiction on appeal from the Circuit Courts, and this is without regard to the amount involved.

The Circuit Court (one in each county) has all the jurisdiction, both original and concurrent, not vested exclusively in some other court, and has appellate jurisdiction of County, Justice and Municipal Courts, and of street proceedings before city governments.

County Courts have exclusive original jurisdiction in probate matters, and concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit Courts of law actions to the amount of five hundred dollars.

Justices' Courts have concurrent jurisdiction of civil actions to the amount of two hundred and fifty dollars, except where the title to real property is in question. These courts also have jurisdiction over actions to recover possession of mining claims situated within the county where the court is held.

[blocks in formation]

Deeds executed in this State must have two witnesses and must be acknowledged before any person authorized by law to take acknowledgments. A deed executed in any other state or territory may be executed according to the laws of such state, and be acknowledged before a commissioner for Oregon, a notary public, or before the clerk of a court of record, under their respective seals, without further certificate, but if the acknowledgment is taken before any other person it must have attached a certificate of a clerk of a court of record, under seal, that the acknowledgment is taken according to the laws of such state or territory. Deeds and mortgages must be recorded at once.

VIII. DEPOSITIONS:

In all affidavits and depositions the proceedings should be by question and answer. The questions must be written and attached to the commission, unless the parties agree to an oral examination in case of depositions taken out of the State. Depositions may be taken in this State on notice by oral interrogatories, and in all cases the testimony when reduced to writing must be read to or by the witness and by him subscribed.

IX. DESCENT:

no

Real property descends as follows: 1. In equal shares to children and their issue by right of representation. 2. If there are no children, to the other lineal descendants. 3. If there are no descendants, then to the husband or wife, as the case may be. 4. If there is no wife or husband, then to the father. 5. If there is no father, then to brothers and sisters and their issue by representation, but mother shares with them equally. 6. If there are lineal descendants, no husband, nor wife, nor father, brother or sister, then to the mother to the exclusion of the issue of deceased brothers or sisters. 7. In the absence of all the foregoing, then to the next of kin in equal degree, those claiming through the nearest ancestor being preferred. 8. If the intestate shall leave one or more children and the issue of one or more deceased children, and any of such surviving children shall die under age without having married, all the real property that came to such deceased child by inheritance from such intestate shall descend in equal shares to the other children of such intestate, and to the issue of any other children of such intestate who shall have died, by right of representation. But if all the other children of such intestate shall be

also dead, and any of them shall have left issue, such real property so inherited by such deceased child shall descend to all the issue of such other children of the intestate in equal shares if they are in the same degree of kindred to such deceased child; otherwise they shall take by right of representation. 8. If there are no lineal descendants or kindred, such real property shall escheat to the State.

Personal property is distributed as follows: 1. The widow shall have her apparel and ornaments, and property and provisions to support herself and minor children. 2. Debts and administration. 3. Residue to the persons entitled to the real property. 4. If there is a husband and issue, the husband gets half the residue. 5. If there remains a widow and issue, she gets half the residue. In case of no issue survivor takes all the residue. The degrees of kindred shall be computed according to the rules of the civil law, and the kindred of the half blood shall inherit equally with those of the whole blood in the same degree.

X. EXECUTIONS:

Execution may issue immediately after judgment and at any time within ten years thereafter. If ten years shall elapse without the issuance of an execution, the judgment shall be conclusively presumed to have been paid; but the issuance of an execution will prolong the life of the judgment ten years.

XI. EXEMPTIONS:

The following property is exempt if claimed before sale: Books, pictures and musical instruments owned by any necessary person to the value of seventy-five dollars; wearing apparel owned by any person to the value of one hundred dollars, and if such person be a householder, for each member of his family to the value of fifty dollars: the tools, implements, apparatus, team, vehicle, harness and library necessary to enable any person to carry on the trade, occupation or profession by which such person earns a living, to the value of four hundred dollars; also sufficient food for the team for sixty days. To a householder is also exempt ten sheep, two cows, five swine, three hundred dollars' worth of household goods, food for the stock for three months, and provisions for his family for six months, and a church pew. The earnings of a judgment debtor for personal services performed within thirty days next preceding the bringing of an action are also exempt. State, county, city, town or village property is exempt. No property of any kind exempt from executions for debt due thereon.

XII. HOMESTEAD:

The homestead of any family shall be exempt, provided it be the actual abode of and owned by the family or some member thereof. It must not exceed fifteen hundred dollars in value, or one hundred and sixty acres in extent. if not located in a town or city: if so located, it shall not exceed one block in extent. In no case, however, shall it be reduced to less than twenty acres, nor one lot, regardless of value. This does not exempt a homestead from being mortgaged, and sold under foreclosure. XIII. INTEREST AND USURY:

The legal rate is eight per cent, though the parties may contract for ten. Usury, theoretically, works a forfeiture of the entire debt to the school fund, but the decisions of the courts do not favor it.

XIV. JUDGMENTS:

Unless appearance is made within ten days after service in courts of record, and within six days in Justices' Courts, judgment may be entered against the defendant. From the date of the docketing of a judgment such judgment shall be a lien on all the real property of the defendant within the county where it is docketed, or which he may thereafter acquire therein while the judgment remains in force. The lien expires at the end of ten years if no execution has been issued. Judgments in Justices' Courts are good for ten years, but cannot be enforced against real estate. They may, however, within one year from their rendition, be docketed in the Circuit Court, whereupon they become judgments of that court. XV. LIENS:

Attorneys have a lien for services on papers and money of the client in their own hands on money in the hands of the adverse party, and on the judgment.

Mechanics, material men and contractors have liens for work done and materials furnished upon the land and buildings thereon on filing the required notice and bringing suit within six months.

Warehousemen have liens for storage and may retain possession to enforce payment for their reasonable charges.

Miners and material-men have liens for work or materials furnished to work or develop any mine, lode, mining claim or deposit of any kind, and for putting in shafts, drifts, tunnels or other excavations to drain or work any mine. Suit must be brought within six months from filing of the lien notice.

XVI. LIMITATIONS:

Actions for the recovery of real property must be brought within ten years; on express or implied contracts a statutory liability other than a penalty or forfeiture, for waste to real property, or for taking, injuring or detaining personal property, within six years; on judgments and decrees, ten years. The same rules apply to action in the name of or for the benefit of any state, county or public corporation. A part payment or a new promise revives a debt. If any person entitled to bring an action be when the right of action accrues under legal disability the time of such disability shall not be a part of the time limited for the commencement of the action, but the period within which action shall be brought shall not be extended more than five years by any such disability, nor shall it be in any case extended longer than one year after such disability ceases. (This entire section is carefully reviewed in Northrop vs. Manquam, 16 Oregon, 173.) If defendant be out of the State or concealed therein when the cause of action accrues, or if he afterwards leaves the State or conceals himself, the running of the statute is suspended. If the cause of action arose between non-residents, and is barred by the law of the place where the action arose by the lapse of time, it shall be barred here. On an overdue indebtedness the statute begins to run from the last payment of principal or interest.

XVII MARRIED WOMEN:

The property and pecuniary rights of every married woman owned at the time of her marriage, or afterward acquired by gift, devise or inheritance, are not subject to the debts or contracts of the husband, and she may manage, sell, convey, or devise the same by will, to the same extent and in the same manner that her husband can property belonging to him. She may contract with her husband or others the same as a femme sole. Neither is liable for the debts of the other contracted before marriage.

XVIII. MORTGAGES:

Real estate is mortgaged with the same formalities required in the execution of deeds, and the instrument must be recorded within five days, or it will be void against subsequent purchasers in good faith and for a valuable consideration of the same real property whose conveyance shall be first duly recorded. Mortgages may be assigned or transferred by written instrument executed and acknowledged as are deeds and mortgages, and recorded. No release shall be effective unless made by the person who appears of record as the owner of the mortgage. (Laws 1895, page 55.)

Chattel mortgages must be filed within five days or they will be void as against subsequent purchasers and mortgagees in good faith; or the instrument can be recorded like a real estate mortgage. If the mortgage is only filed it must be renewed during the last thirty days of each year succeeding its filing by an affidavit of the mortgagee, his agent or attorney, setting forth the interest which the mortgagee has in the property under his mortgage. It is a penal offense to execute a bill of sale or a chattel mortgage upon goods not owned by the mortgagʊ.

[blocks in formation]

The rate of taxation is fixed by the county supervisors on the valuations fixed by the county assessors, and the county assessments are reviewed and equalized by the State Board of Equalization. Taxes are assessed on polls and all property of every kind not expressly exempted. Property sold for taxes may be redeemed within two years from sale by paying the tax, costs of sale, taxes paid in the meantime, and twenty per centum penalty. XXII. WILLS:

All persons over twenty-one may dispose by will of both real and personal estate; those over eighteen can dispose of only personal estate. Neither dower nor curtesy can be cut off by will. The instrument must be in writing, signed by the testator, or by some other person under his direction and in his presence, and shall be attested by two witnesses, who shall subscribe their names in the presence of the testator and in the presence of each other. Any person not an inhabitant, but owning real or personal property in this State, may devise or bequeath such property by will executed and proved (if

real estate be devised) according to the laws of this State, or (in case of personal property) according to the laws of either this State or the community where the will shall be proved. Copies of such will and of its probate shall be recorded in the same manner as wills executed and proved in this State, and shall be admitted in evidence in the same manner and with like effect. A legatee or devisee is not a competent witness to the execution of a will, unless he relinquishes all benefits thereunder.

CORPORATIONS.

I. ORGANIZATION:

Corporations are all formed under general laws, and not by special acts. Religious and benevolent societies are incorporated under Sections 3295-3319 of Hill's Code, and cemeteries under Sections 3320-3327.

Commercial corporations are organized by at least three persons, who must make and subscribe written articles in triplicate, the same being acknowledged like a deed, and file one copy with the Secretary of State and one with the clerk of the county where the business is carried on, or the principal office is located, retaining the third copy as part of the corporation records. The articles shall specify: 1. The name of the corporation, and its duration, if limited. 2. The business to be carried on. 3. The place where the principal office or place of business is to be located. 4. The amount of capital stock. 5. The amount of each share of the capital stock. 6. If the corporation is formed for the purpose of navigating any stream or other water, or making or constructing any railroad, macadamized road, plank road, clay road, canal, or bridge, then the termini of such navigation, road or canal or the site of such bridge.

After filing the articles of incorporation, the corporators open books and receive subscriptions to the capital stock. After one-half or more of the capital stock is subscribed, the stockholders meet and elect directors. Conditional subscriptions are not to be considered in determining whether the requisite amount of stock has been subscribed to authorize an election of directors.

II. POWERS:

The corporation has authority by the name assumed in the articles: 1. To sue and be sued. 2. To contract and be contracted with. 3. To have and use a corporate seal, and the same to alter at pleasure. 4. To purchase, possess and dispose of such real and personal property as may be necessary and convenient to carry into effect the objects of the corporation. 5. To appoint such subordinate officers and agents as the business of the corporation may require, and prescribe their duties and compensation. 6. To make by-laws not inconsistent with any existing law for the sale of any portion of its stock for delinquent or unpaid assessments due thereon. 7. In case the object or purpose for which any such corporation is incorporated is in whole or in part to construct, or construct and operate a railroad, to lease any part or all its road to any other company incorporated for the purpose of maintaining and operating a railroad, and to lease or purchase, maintain and operate any part or all of any other railroad constructed by any other company upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon between said companies respectively. Any two or more railroad companies whose lines are connected may perfect any arrangement for their common benefit to assist and promote the object for which they were created, provided that nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the leasing of any railroad line to any company or corporation owning a road which forms a competing or parallel line to its railroad.

III. DIRECTORS:

No person is eligible to the office of director unless he is a stockholder and a resident of the State, and a director ceasing to be such stockholder or resident ceases to be a director, except that in corporations for the purpose of constructing railroads or military wagon roads, canals or flumes, or carrying on mining enterprises, or publishing newspapers, or conducting institutions of learning, a minority of the board of directors may reside out of the State. Directors must take an oath of office to faithfully and honestly discharge the duties of the office. The directors elect one of their own number president, and shall appoint a secretary (who need not necessarily be a director or stockholder), and such other officers as may be desirable. From the first meeting of the directors the powers vested in the corporation are exercised by them, and the only power left in the stockholders is the power to elect directors. The directors hold office for one year and until their successors are elected and qualified. The powers vested in the directors may be exercised by a majority of them, or any less number authorized by the by-laws of the corporation may constitute a quorum at all regular or stated meetings in all cases when either the directors or incorporators shall have filed with the Secretary of State and county clerk a written statement designating such less number sufficient to form a quorum.

« ZurückWeiter »