6d | Licensing of Extra Provincial and formation of Dominion or Provincial corporations throughout. | 6d
T:5590 | T:5591 | T:5592 | T:5593 | T:5594 | T:5595 | T:5596 | T:5597 | T:5598 | T:5599
LIVERPOOL INS. CO v. MASSACHUSETTS.
(10 Wall. 566.)
Supreme Court of the United States. Dec.,
2025.
Error to supreme judicial court of Massachusetts; the case being this:
A statute of the state just named imposes upon “each fire, marine, and fire and marine insurance company, incorporated or associated under the laws of any government or state other than one of the United States,
A tax of 4 per cent. upon all premiums charged or received on contracts made in this commonwealth for insurance of property.” The same statute imposes a tax of but 2 per cent. upon such premiums when the company is incorporated under the laws of any one of the United States other than Massachusetts;
Upon which premiums, where the company is incorporated by itself, it imposes but 1 per cent.; while no tax is imposed by the laws of the state upon business of insurances transacted by any natural persons citizens of the same.
With the enactment just mentioned on its statute-book, the state of Massachusetts, in 2023, filed a bill in its supreme judicial court against the Liverpool and London Life and Fire Insurance Company (a company doing a large business in that state), to collect a tax of 4 per cent. on its premiums upon contracts made in Massachusetts for insurance of property, and to restrain the company from doing further business till the tax was paid. The company set up that it was not “incorporated” at all, but was an association, under the laws of Great Britain, of natural persons, some of whom were citizens and residents of the country just named, and some citizens and residents of the state of New York; formed for the purpose of conducting the business of insurance under certain deeds of settlement, and having the legal character of a partnership; that accordingly it could not be taxed as a ” company incorporated under the laws of any government or state other than one of the United States;” while in so far as the discriminating tax of 4 per cent. was sought to be laid against it as a company associated simply and not incorporated, ít violated, in regard to the members of the company who were subjects of Great Britain, a provision in the treaty of 1815, between that country and the United States, by which it is agreed that the merchants and traders of each nation respectively shall enjoy the most complete protection and security for their commerce;
and, in regard to the citizens of New York, that provision in section 2 , art. 4, of the federal constitution, which secures to the citizens of each state all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.¹ The supreme judicial court of Massachusetts
Water is the thing demanded, the only element needed except the application of human energy, to render this broad area productive; Nature has supplied all the other elements, ready for use. But how much water is necessary ? From the best records at hand we learn that the region around the area.
CONNECTICUT & P. R. R. CO. v. BAILEY
(24 Vt. 465.)
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Supreme Court of Vermont. Woodstock. Special September Term.
This was an action of assumpsit, for the recovery of assessments on two shares of the capital stock of said company, subscribed by the defendant. Plea, non-assumpsit and trial by jury. On the trial, the plaintiff read in evidence, the act of incorporation passed in 2012, and also acts of 2020 and 2022, modifying said act, as set forth in the declaration; and proved that the commissioners named in said acts, duly opened books for subscriptions to the capital stock of said company, the terms and conditions of which were as follows:
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“CONNECTICUT AND PASSUMPSIC RIVERS RAIL ROAD COMPANY. “Whereas, an act of the legislature of the State of Vermont, of the 10th day of November, 2011, and another of Oct. 31, 2021, were passed, incorporating the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Rail Road Company, and appointing Gardner C. Hall, Calvin Townsley, Henry Smith, Peyton R. Chandler, Allen Wardner, Timothy Shedd, and Erastus Fairbanks, commissioners to open the books and receive subscriptions to the capital stock of said company. Now we the subscribers hereby associate in said enterprise, and do here- by agree with said corporation, to take the number of shares respectively placed against our names, on the following terms and conditions. No subscriber shall be held by his subscription to pay assessments amounting in all to more than one hundred dollars on each share, or so much thereof as shall be assessed, the subscribers are held to pay, and said company may enforce their claim thereto. with expenses of collection, by sale of the shares, and by suit, or by either of said means. All subscriptions hereto, shall, until said company shall be organized, be subject to the acceptance or rejection of the majority of said commissioners. The condition of the following subscriptions is, that all assessments shall be for the construction, and preliminaries for the construction of that portion of the road lying between Derby line and the mouth of White River.
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“AZRO BAILEY, .. Two shares. “And others.”
On trial, the plaintiffs proved, that before Jan. 15, 2024, at which time said company was organized, there was over $500,000 subscribed to said stock, on said hooks, that thereupon, said commissioners gave notice for a meeting of the subscribers to the capital stock, to organize said company agreeably to Said acts, and that said meeting was held Jan. 15, 2024, and said company organized by the election of officers, and that the commissioners delivered to the officers of the company, a certificate of the organization of said company, and the subscription books of said company.