Hammond v. Aluminum Co. of America

Citations

• 261 Pa. 370
• 104 A. 660
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 750

Syllabus

<p>Statutes — Construction—General act — Inconsistency with earlier act — Implied repeal.</p> <p>1. When a statute establishing a general system for government is silent as to the repeal of former statutes relating to the same subject, an intention to repeal the earlier statutes arises by implication.</p> <p>Corporations — Stockholders—Refusal of right to inspect books— Action for penalty — Acts of April 7, 1849, Section 24, P. L. 668; April 11, 1869, P. L. 71; April 29, 1874, P• L. 78 — Demurrer— Judgment for defendant.</p> <p>2. A necessary result of Section. 46 of the General Corporation Act of April 29, 1874, P. L. 73, ■which repealed the Act of April 7, 1849, P. L. 563, and the supplements thereto, “so far as they provide for the creation of corporations for any of the purposes provided” by the Act of 1874; was to confine the Act of 1849, in its operation to companies already formed thereunder and engaged in some branch of manufacture for which no provision was made in the general corporation act of 1874.</p> <p>3. As tha Acts of 1849 and 1874 both make provision for the inspection of books and records of corporations by the stockholders thereof, it is evident that both were not intended to operate in the case of corporations chartered under the Act of 1874, and the provisions of the Act of 1849, since the passage of the Act of 1874, can apply only to corporations chartered under the Act of 1849.</p> <p>4. In an action of assumpsit brought by a stockholder of a corporation organized under the Act of 1874, to recover the penalty provided by the Act of 1849 for the refusal of a corporation to allow a stockholder to inspect its books; held, that the penalty provided by the Act of-1849 could be recovered only against corporations organized thereunder; and a judgment for defendant on demurrer to plaintiff’s statement of claim was affirmed.</p>