Directors.

Notice.

Election.

Votes.

Tenure of offer

Manner of using road.

such further measures as they may deem necessary to fill the subscription for the stock.

S15. The concerns of the said corporation shall be managed by a board of thirteen directors, who shall be chosen annually by and from among the stockholders.

$16. As soon as may be after the stock has been thus apportioned, the commissioners shall give a notice of the time and place at which a meeting of the stockholders will be held for the choice of thirteen directors. Such notice shall be published once in each week for three weeks successively, prior to the time therein appointed for such election, in a newspaper printed and published in the city of New-York, and in the counties of Suffolk, Queens and Kings.

S17. At the time and place appointed for the purpose, the commissioners, or a majority of them, shall attend, and the stockholders present, or their proxies duly appointed in writing, shall proceed to elect by ballot, thirteen directors: the commissioners present shall preside at the election, and shall certify the result under their hands; which certificate shall be recorded in the books of the corporation, and shall be sufficient evidence of the election of the directors therein named. All future elections of such directors shall be conducted in the manner prescribed in the by-laws of the corporation.

S 18. Each stockholder shall be allowed as many votes as he owns shares of stock at the commencement of any such election, and a plurality of votes shall determine the choice; but no stockholder shall be allowed to vote at any election after the first, for any stock that shall have been assigned to him at any time within thirty days prior to the time at which such election shall be held.

$ 19. The directors shall hold their offices for one year following their election or appointment, and until others are elected or appointed in their places: they shall appoint one of their number as president, and some suitable person secretary of the corporation.

$20. In addition to the general powers given by the Revised Statutes to corporations, the corporation hereby created shall have power to prescribe the manner in which the said roads shall be used; by what force the carriages to be used thereon may be propelled, and the rates of toll for the transportation of persons or property thereon; it shall have power also by its officers, agents and servants, to enter upon any of the lands lying within the contemplated range of the said rail-road, for the purpose of examining, surveying and establishing its lines.

$ 21. The said corporation may also construct, pur-Ducks chase or hire docks or wharves at the easterly termination of the said road, for the convenient use of the same. And the title of this state to any land covered with water, which may be requisite for the construction of such docks or wharves, and which may be taken for that purpose without injury to the navigation of the waters thereof, shall be conveyed to the said corporation by the commissioners of the land-office.

$ 22. The said corporation may also, either separately Steam boat. or in conjunction with any other rail-road company incorporated by the laws of this or any other state, purchase or employ one or more steam-boats for the conveyance of passengers and goods between the eastern termination of the said rail-road and any other rail-road incorporated by the legislatures of Connecticut or Rhode-Island.

be purchased

$23. The said corporation may acquire title to the Lands may lands through which the said rail-roads shall be laid, by purchase or voluntary cession. If any of the owners of the said lands is an infant or insane, and such infant has a guardian, or such insane person a committee, it shall be lawful for such guardian or committee to agree to convey the land of such infant or insane person to the said corporation: and on such agreement being reported by such guardian or committee to the vice-chancellor of the first circuit, and approved by him as conducive to the interests of such infant or insane person, the said vice-chancellor may authorise the said guardian or committee to, and such guardian or committee may thereupon, convey to the said corporation the right, title and interest of such infant or insane person in and to such lands.

cannot be ac

$ 24. In case the corporation shall not be able to ac- In ense title quire the title to such lands as may be requisite for the quired. said rail-roads, or the use thereof, by purchase or voluntary cession, it shall be lawful for the said corporation to appropriate so much of such lands as may be necessary to its own use for the purposes contemplated by this act, on complying with the provisions of the six following sections."

vice-chanel

$25. The directors of the corporation hereby created, Petition to may present a petition to the said vice-chancellor, setting lor. forth by some proper description the lands which are wanted for the construction of the said rail-roads, or the appendages thereto, and the names of the owners (or if the title thereto is in dispute, of the claimants,) thereof, if known; distinguishing with convenient certainty, if it can be done, the parcels claimed in severalty by the respective owners or claimants, and their title or claim to the same,

Hearing.

Damages.

Appraisers.

To report.

Future claimants.

whether as tenants, reversioners or remaindermen, and praying for the appointment of appraisers to assess the damages which the owners of such lands will severally sustain by reason of the appropriation thereof by the said corporation to its own use.

$ 26. On the presentment of such petition, the said vicechancellor shall appoint a day for the hearing of the parties, and direct such notice as he shall deem reasonable to be given of the time and place of hearing; and in case it shall appear that any of the owners or claimants of the said lands is a feme covert, an infant, or insane, or otherwise incompetent to take proper care of his or her interest, it shall be the duty of the said vice-chancellor to appoint some discreet and responsible person to act in the premises in his or her behalf.

$27. At the time appointed for such hearing, the said vice-chancellor shall appoint three disinterested freeholders, residents on Long-Island, for the purpose of assessing such damages; and in the order for their appointment, shall direct what lands are to be appropriated by the said corporation for the purposes aforesaid.

$28. The said appraisers, after being sworn before some officer authorized to administer oaths, honestly and impartially to assess such damages, shall proceed by viewing the said lands, and by such other evidence as the parties may produce before them, to ascertain and assess the damages which each individual owner, whether his estate be in possession, reversion or remainder, (or in case of a disputed title, which the true owner, naming all the claimants) will sustain by the appropriation of his or her land for the use or accommodation of such rail-road or its appendages.

$29. The said appraisers shall make a report to the said vice-chancellor in writing, under their hands and seals, reciting the order for their appointment, and specifying the several parcels of land described therein, with requisite certainty, the names of the owners or claimants of the respective parcels if known, and if not known, stating that fact, and specifying also the damages which the owners of the said respective parcels will sustain, by reason of the appropriation of the same for the purposes aforesaid; and in case either of the parties is dissatisfied with the assessment, the said vice-chancellor may, on the hearing of the parties in interest, modify the assessment as shall appear to be just.

$30. The rights of any future claimants to any of the lands which may be taken by the said corporation for the use of the said rail-roads, or any of their appendages,

shall at any future time be ascertained, valued and acquired for the use of the said corporation, in the manner directed in the six preceding sections.

in company.

$ 31. On payment of the damages thus assessed, to- Lands vested gether with the expenses of assessment, as the same shall be settled by the said vice-chancellor, or on depositing the amount thereof for the use of such owners in either of the banks of the village of Brooklyn as the said vicechancellor shall direct, the said corporation shall immediately become entitled to the use of the said lands for the purposes aforesaid; and the report of the said appraisers, with the order of the said vice-chancellor modifying the same, in case the same shall have been modified, may be recorded in the proper office, in the same manner and with the like effect, as deeds are recorded, without any other proof than the certificate of the said vice-chancellor, that the report is genuine.

$32. The corporation shall be bound to repair all pub- Repairs. lic highways, bridges, rail-roads and water-courses, which may be injured in constructing the said rail-roads or their appendages, and shall restore them as far as practicable, to as good a condition as they were in before they become injured.

$ 33. The said corporation shall be allowed two years Time limited. from the passage of this act, for the commencement of the construction of the said rail-road; and in case the said rail-road from Green-Port to Brooklyn and Williamsburgh, shall not be completed within six years thereafter, the privileges herein granted shall be forfeited.

S34. The said corporation shall construct the said road Branches. to both Brooklyn and Williamsburgh, and the said branch to Sagg-Harbor, at the same time with the main road, if it shall appear to the directors from the report of the engineers or surveyors employed to survey the route of the main road and the said branch that the capital stock of the said corporation subscribed will be sufficient for the purpose.

$35. Every person who shall wilfully injure the said Penalty. rail-road or any of its appendages, shall forfeit to the use of the said corporation, a sum equal to three times the amount of damages occasioned by such injury, to be recovered with costs of suit, in the name of such corporation, in an action of debt.

$ 36. No street or lane in Brooklyn or Williamsburgh Streets. shall be taken by the said corporation for the said railroads, without the previous permission of their respective corporations; nor shall steam power be used on any part

Account to be filed.

Road may be purchased,

of the rail-roads within either of the said places without such permission.

$37. The directors of the said corporation shall, at the end of every year after the construction of the said railroad shall have been commenced, and for the term of fifteen years after the same shall have been completed, cause to be filed in the office of the secretary of state, a detailed account of all the moneys expended during the year, in constructing the said rail-road and its appendages, and in superintending and keeping the same in repair; and a similar account of the income derived by tolls or otherwise from the use of the said rail-road, to the end that a just estimate may be made of the profits received by the said corporation therefrom; such account shall be verified by the oaths of at least two of the directors, or other officers of the said corporation.

$38. If the legislature of this state shall, at the expiration of ten and within fifteen years from the completion. of said road, make provision by law for the repayment to the said corporation of the amount expended by them in the construction of their rail-roads, together with all moneys expended by them for permanent fixtures for the use of the said rail-roads, with interest on the said sums from the time of their expenditure, at the rate of ten per centum per annum, together with all moneys expended by said company for repairs or other necessary expenses for the purposes of said roads, after deducting the amount of tolls received on said roads, then the said rail-roads, with all their fixtures and appurtenances, shall vest in and become the property of the people of this state.

$ 39. The said corporation shall be subject to the restrictions and liabilities imposed by such parts of the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes, as are not repealed.

$40. The legislature may at any time alter, modify or repeal this act.