Nashua and Lowell Railroad v. Boston and Lowell Railroad

Citations

• 136 U.S. 356
• 10 S. Ct. 1004
• 34 L. Ed. 363
• 1890 U.S. LEXIS 2219

Syllabus

<p>Railroad corporations, created by two or more States, though joined in their interests, in the operation of their roads, in the issue of their stock and in the division of their profits, so as practically to he a single corporation, do not lose their identity; but each has its existence and its . standing in the courts of the country only by virtue of the legislation of the State by which it was created, and the union of name, of officers, of business and of property does not change their distinctive character as separate corporations.</p> <p>The Nashua and Lowell Railroad Corporation was incorporated, by the State of New Hampshire June 23, 1835, “to locate construct and keep in repair a railroad from any point in the southern lino of the State . to some convenient.place in or near Nashua,” seven persons being named as incorporators. The Nashua and Lowell Railroad Corporation, (three out of the seven being named as incorporators,) was incorporated by the State of Massachusetts on the 16th of April, 1836, “'to locate, construct and finally complete a railroad from Lowell” “ to form a junction with the portion of said Nashua and Lowell Railroad lying within the State of New Hampshire.” The legislature of Massachusetts, on the 10th of April, 1838, enacted that “ the stockholders” of the New Hampshire Company “are hereby constituted stockholders” of the Massachusetts Company, “ and the said two corporations are hereby united into one corporation,” and further provided that the act should “ not take effect until the legislature of . . . New Hampshire shall have passed an act similar to this uniting the said stock holders into one corporation, nor until the said acts have been accepted by the said stockholders.” The legislature of New Hampshire, on the 26th of June, 1838, enacted “ that the two corporations . . . are hereby authorized, from and after the time when this act shall take effect, to unite said corporations, and from and after the time said corporations shal