State ex rel. Winston v. Hudson Land Co.

Citations

• 19 Wash. 85
• 40 L.R.A. 430
• 52 P. 574
• 1898 Wash. LEXIS 322

Syllabus

<p>OWNERSHIP OP LANDS BY CORPORATIONS COMPOSED OP ALIENS — CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.</p> <p>Under the constitutional provision prohibiting alien ownership of lands in this state and declaring that every corporation, a majority of whose stock is owned by aliens, shall be deemed an alien for the purposes of suoh prohibition, conveyances to a corporation, a majority of whose stockholders are aliens, may be avoided at the suit of the state, although at the time the conveyance was made a majority of the stockholders may have been citizens of the United States.</p> <p>A lease of lands to an alien for the period of forty-nine years is void under the constitutional prohibition against alien ownership of lands, since such persons cannot be allowed to accomplish indirectly that which they are forbidden to do directly.</p>