Gloninger v. Pittsb. & C. R.

Citations

• 139 Pa. 13
• 27 W.N.C. 497
• 21 A. 211
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 955

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. If a railroad, authorized expressly by its charter to mortgage its railroad and other property, but without express authority to mortgage its corporate franchises, make a mortgage covering both its railroad and franchises, the validity of the mortgage, as to the railroad, is unaffected by the inclusion of the corporate franchises therein, even if unauthorized.</p> <p>2. The power to borrow money, and to give the ordinary evidences of loans in the form of bonds or other obligations to the same effect, is a necessary incident to the power of the corporation to mortgage its property, and need not be expressly granted; moreover, it is a necessary incident of the power to build a railroad: Pittsb. etc. R. Co. v. Allegheny Co., 63 Pa. 126.</p> <p>(a) A supplement to an act incorporating a railroad company authorized the company to mortgage its road, and any real or personal property belonging to it, “ for the purpose of carrying out the privileges granted by the act and the several supplements thereto incorporating the same.” Said supplements, and later ones, authorized various extensions of the railroad:</p> <p>3. The power to mortgage extended to future extensions of the railroad subsequently authorized, and all other real and personal estate of the company, without regard to the time of acquisition; it was not exhausted when the railroad, as authorized at the date of the supplement, was completed, but justified a mortgage to carry out any power then or afterward granted to the company.</p> <p>4. The provisions of § 7, article XVI. of the constitution, and the act of April 18, 1874, P. L. 61, regulating the manner in which the stock and indebtedness of corporations may be increased, do not apply to a corporation which was invested by its charter, before the constitution was adopted, with unrestricted power to make such increase, and accepted the benefit of no legislation since 1874.</p> <p>5. And this, though the corporation, by accepting