Rose Hill & Evanston Road Co. v. People ex rel. Lawless

Citations

• 115 Ill. 133
• 3 N.E. 725
• 1885 Ill. LEXIS 535

Syllabus

<p>1. Corporation—evidence showing incorporation. Where the certificate of intention to incorporate a company to construct and keep in repair a plank or gravel road, made in 1859 or 1860, has been destroyed, as well as the record thereof, and parol evidence is resorted to to prove its contents, it is not necessary that the testimony shall be so full as to the substantial statements of such certificate as that it might thereby be reproduced, but it will be sufficient if it shows the certificate contained the statements required by the statute.</p> <p>2. Where a company took steps to effect an incorporation, under the act of 1859, to construct and keep in repair a road, with toll-bridges, and that, claiming to be incorporated, it built its road, and has operated the same as a toll-road since about the year 1860, during all which time the use of the road as a toll-road was acquiesced in by the public, some presumption may be drawn from such continued acquiescence in aid of the parol testimony showing the contents of the certificate of incorporation, after its destruction and all copies thereof by fire.</p> <p>3. Same—statute of 1859 construed as directory. The provision in section 17 of the act of 1859, relating to corporations, that “any company formed under this act shall file a copy of their by-laws, signed by the president and secretary of such company, and a list of the stockholders therein, and the amount of the stock signed, as aforesaid, in the county clerk’s office,” etc., is but directory, and is not a requisite to incorporation. Upon compliance with section 1 of the act the incorporation became complete.</p>