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evidence in a certain inquisition now pending before said county coroner—and herein fail not or answer the contrary at your peril. Given under my hand, this

A. D. 1859.

day of

J. M. MCNULTY, County Coroner.

Oath to Coroner's Jury.

You and each of you do solemnly swear that you will truly inquire into the cause of the death of the person whose body is now lying here [or, whose body you have just viewed], who he was, when, where and by what means he came to his death, and into the circumstances attending his death: and render a true verdict thereon, according to the evidence afforded you, or arising from the inspection of the body. So help you God.

Oath of Witness before Coroner's Inquest.

You do solemnly swear [or, affirm] that the evidence you shall give upon the inquest now pending, concerning the death of A. B. [or, the person now lying here, or, the person upon whom inquisition is being made], shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help you God. ·

Inquisition by Coroner's Jury.

State of California,

City and County of San Francisco,

Before J. M. MCNULTY, Coroner.

In the matter of the inquisition upon the body

of

on the

A. B.

day of

deceased.

We, the undersigned, the jurors summoned to appear before J. M.McNulty, the coroner of the city and county of San Francisco, at 1859, to inquire into the cause of the death of A. B. [or, of a person found drowned in the Bay of San Francisco, or, found lying dead in the street, or as the case may be, whose name is unknown], having been duly sworn according to law, and having made such inquis tion, after inspecting the body, and hearing the testimony adduced, upon our oaths, each and all do say, that we find the deceased was named A. B., was a native of , aged about years, that he came to his death on the day of , 1859, in this county, by drowning, having been found in the Bay of San Francisco, at or near the Washington street wharf, and that whether the same was accidental or intentional we have no means of knowing [or, by poison administered wilfully by his own hand, or, by the hand of, or, by the means or instigation of some other person to the jury unknown, or, and we further find, that we

believe C. D. to be the person by whose act the death of the said A. B. is occasioned-stating the facts, as the case may be].

All of which we duly certify by this inquisition, in writing, by us signed, this

day of

1859.

Coroner's Certificate of Death.

Office of the Coroner of the City and County

of San Francisco,

G. H.

I. K., &c.

I, J. M. McNulty, coroner, do hereby certify, that I held an inquisition upon the body of Peter Joram, a native of London, England, aged thirty-seven years, at No. 29 Washington street, on the second day of May, 1859. Verdict of the jury-death from intemperance.

And I further certify, that I interred the body at the Lone Mountain Cemetery, in this county, on the third day of May,

1859.

Dated, this third day of May, 1859.

J. M. MCNULTY, County Coroner.

Coroner's Warrant..

State of California,

City and County of San Francisco, (

SS:

The People of the State of California send greeting, to any sheriff, constable, marshal, or policeman in said state.

An inquisition having this day been found by a coroner's jury before me, stating that a man, named George Hax, has come to his death by criminal means, by the act of a man named Richard Stew, you are therefore commanded forthwith to arrest the above-named Richard Stew, and take him before the nearest or most accessible magistrate in this county.

Given under my hand, in the city and county of San Francisco, this tenth day of May, 1859. J. M. MCNULTY,

County Coroner.

CHAPTER XV.

CORPORATIONS.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.'

CORPORATIONS may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special acts, except for municipal purposes. All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time or repealed.

Dues from corporations shall be secured by such individual liability of the corporators and other means, as may be prescribed by law.

The term corporations, as used in this article, shall be construed to include all associations and joint-stock companies, having any of the powers or privileges of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships. And all corporations shall have the right to sue, and shall be subject to be sued, in all courts, in like cases, as natural persons.

The legislature shall have no power to pass any act granting any charter for banking purposes; but associations may be formed, under general laws, for the deposit of gold and silver; but no such associations shall make, issue, or put in circulation, any bill, check, ticket, certificate, promissory note, or other paper, or the paper of any bank, to circulate as money.

The legislature of this state shall prohibit by law any person or persons, associations, company, or corporation from exercising the privileges of banking, or creating paper to circulate as money.

Each stockholder of a corporation, or joint-stock association, shall be individually and personally liable for his proportion of all its debts and liabilities.

It shall be the duty of the legislature to provide for the organ

1 Const. Cal. art. 4, §§ 31-37.

ization of cities and incorporated villages, and to restrict their power of taxation, assessment, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit, so as to prevent abuses in assessment and in contracting debts by such municipal corporations.

STATUTORY PROVISIONS.

A serviceable outline of the statutes concerning corporations would be nearly of equal length with the statutes themselves. The following selection includes the general corporation law, the law concerning steam navigation, water, and telegraph companies, agricultural societies, and benevolent, religious, and literary associations, with portions of the acts concerning plankroad insurance, and mechanical mining, commercial, &c., companies, sufficient to show respectively their modes of organization, their principal authority, and the personal liabilities of their members.

ACT OF APRIL 22, 1859, CONCERNING CORPORATIONS.'

SECTION 1. Every corporation, as such, has power: 1. To have succession by its corporate name, for the period limited, and when no period is limited, perpetually. 2. To sue and be sued in any court. 3. To make and use a common seal, and alter the same at pleasure. 4. To hold, purchase, and convey such real and personal estate as the purposes of the corporation shall require, not exceeding the amount limited by law. 5. To appoint such subordinate officers and agents as the business of the corporation shall require, and to allow them a suitable compensation. 6. To make by-laws not inconsistent with any existing law, for the management of its property, the regulation of its affairs, and for the transfer of its stock.

SEC. 2. In addition to the powers enumerated in the preceding section, and to those expressly given in the chapter of this act under which it shall be incorporated, no corporation shall possess or exercise any corporate powers, except such as shall be necessary to the exercise of the powers so enumerated and given. SEC. 3. No corporation created, or to be created, shall, by any

1 Wood's Dig. p. 115.

implication or construction, be deemed to possess the power of discounting bills, notes or other evidences of debt, of receiving deposits, of buying gold or silver, bullion or foreign coin; of buying and selling bills of exchange, of issuing bills, notes or other evidences of debt, upon loans, or for circulation as money. SEC. 4. Where the whole capital of a corporation shall not have been paid in, and the capital paid shall be insufficient to satisfy the claims of its creditors, each stockholder shall be bound to pay, on each share held by him, the sum necessary to complete the amount of such share as fixed by the charter of the company, or such proportion of that sum as shall be required to satisfy the debts of the company.

SEC. 5. When the corporate powers of any corporation are directed to be exercised by any particular body or number of persons, a majority of such body or persons shall be a sufficient number to form a board for the transaction of business, and every decision of a majority of the persons duly assembled as a board, shall be valid as a corporate act.

SEC. 6. If any corporation hereafter formed shall not organize and commence the transaction of its business within one year from the date of its incorporation, its corporate powers shall

cease.

SEC. 7. All corporations may, by their by-laws, where no other provision is specially made, determine the manner of calling and conducting their meetings, the number of members that shall constitute a quorum, the number of shares that shall entitle the members respectively to one or more votes, the mode of voting by proxy, the mode of selling shares for the non-payment of assessments, and the tenure of office of the several officers; and they may prescribe suitable penalties for the violation of their by-laws, not exceeding, in any case, one hundred dollars for any one offence.

SEC. 8. The first meeting of every corporation, where no other provision is specially made, shall be called by a notice, signed by one or more of the persons named in, or associated as corporators under the law by which it is incorporated, setting forth the time, place and purposes of the meeting; and such notice shall, at least twenty days before the meeting, be delivered to each member, or published in some newspaper of the county

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