Phinney v. Trustees of the Sheppard & Enoch Pratt Hospital

Citations

• 88 Md. 633
• 42 A. 58
• 1898 Md. LEXIS 236

Syllabus

<p>Constihitional Law — Title of Statute — Changing Name of Corpo? ation by Act of Legislature — Right to Alter Charters — Impairing Obligation of Contract.</p> <p>The title of the Act of 1898, ch. 17, was “ An Act to change the name of the trustees of the Sheppard Asylum, incorporated ... by the Act of 1853, ch. 274, as amended by the Act of 1886, ch. 9.” The body of the Act, after a preamble, provided that the name of the trustees of the Sheppard Asylum should be changed to the trustees of the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, and that the corporation by the new name should hold all the property, enjoy all the rights, and possess all the powers which were possessed by or conferred upon it by its former name, and shall hold in like manner all the property which it might acquire under said change of title. Held, that the act was not in violation, of the Constitution, Art. 3, sec. 29, which provides that the subject of every law shall be described in its title, because none of the clauses of the Act added anything that would not have resulted by operation of law from the mere change of the corporate name.</p> <p>At the time when the charter of the defendant corporation was granted by th'e Legislature (in 1853) the Constitution provided that all charters might be altered from time to time or repealed, and defendant’s charter also declared that the General Assembly might at any time alter -or amend that Act. Held, that the Act of 1898, ch. 17, changing the name of the corporation with its assent, was valid and did not impair the obligation of the contract, since it was not only within the reserved power of the Legislature but had been assented to by the corporation, the other party to the contract.</p> <p>One who is not a party to a contract cannot object that an Act of the Legislature impairs its obligation.</p> <p>Property was devised to a corporation upon condition that it procure the passage of an Act of the Legislature changing its corporate name, and there was a