People ex rel. Caton v. Ottawa Hydraulic Co.

Citations

• 115 Ill. 281
• 3 N.E. 413

Syllabus

<p>1. Corporation—waiver of ground of forfeiture by subsequent legislation. Although a corporation organized under the general act of 1849, failed and neglected to carry out the object of its creation, and engaged in another and entirely different business than that contemplated in the articles of association, so that a forfeiture of its franchise might have been declared, yet if the legislature, during the existence of such grounds of forfeiture, passed a law amending the act under which it organized, in which its corporate existence is clearly recognized, its acquisitions confirmed, its powers enlarged and new ones conferred so as to embrace its business as then being carried on, such amendatory act will in effect constitute a new charter, and operate as a waiver of any ground of forfeiture, and the corporation may afterward engage in any business authorized by such subsequent and amendatory act.</p> <p>2. Constitutional law—private law, as embracing more than one subject. In 1853 the legislature passed an act .entitled “An act to amend the act incorporating the Ottawa Hydraulic Company, and the La Salle County Manufacturing Company of Ottawa, both incorporated under the general law approved February 10, 1849, ” by which those corporations were recognized and legalized, and their powers enlarged, and the rights claimed by them confirmed. This act authorized-these companies to acquire and hold real estate, by condemnation or otherwise, and relieved- them from the burden imposed by the act of 1849, whereby their stockholders were individually liable to creditors to the amount of their stock: ITeld, that the act of 1853 was not in violation of section 23, article 3, of the constitution of 1848, which provides that “no private or local law which may be passed, etc., shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in its title.”</p> <p>3. Quo WARRANTO—sufficiency of the information to put the respondent upon his defence. Where a number of individuals a