Who may incorporate. Articles of association. Contents. Copy to be filed, etc. [ No. 191. ] AN ACT to provide for the incorporation of equal suffrage associations within the State of Michigan. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That any ten or more persons, residents of this State, and being members of the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association, or of any auxiliary or subordinate equal suffrage association, desiring to form themselves into a corporation, may become incorporated under and in pursuance of the provisions of this act. SEC. 2. Such persons may make and execute articles of association under their hands, and acknowledge the same before some officer authorized by law to take the acknowledgment of deeds, and shall set forth therein: First, The names of the persons associating in the first instance, and their respective places of residence; Second, The corporate name by which such association shall be known in the law, and the place, if any, where its principal business office is to be kept; and Third, The object and purpose of such association, which shall be to secure the political enfranchisement of women, and their equality with men in all respects before the law, and the period for which it is incorporated, not exceeding thirty years. SEC. 3. A copy of such articles of association shall be filed and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, and thereupon the persons who shall have signed and acknowledged the said articles of association, their assoTo be body cor- ciates and successors shall be a body politic and corporate porate, etc. Proviso. by the name expressed in said articles of association, and by that name they and their successors shall have succession, and shall be persons in the law capable of purchasing, taking, receiving, holding and enjoying, to themselves and their successors, real and personal property and estate, and of suing and being sued, and may have a common seal, which they may change and alter at their pleasure: Provided, That the value of such real and personal estate shall not exceed the value of fifty thousand dollars, and they and their successors shall have authority and power to give, grant, sell, demise, or lease and dispose of said real estate, or any part thereof at their will and pleasure, and the proceeds, rents and profits derived therefrom shall be devoted exclusively to the objects and purposes for which such association was formed, as expressed in its articles of association. Every such corporation shall have full power and authority, to make and establish rules, regulations and bylaws, for regulating and governing all the affairs and business of said corporation, according to the laws of this State, and to designate, elect or appoint from its members, such officers and agents as it shall deem necessary, and under such name and style as it may deem proper. to be evidence. SEC. 4. A copy of the record of such articles of associa- Copy of record tion, duly certified according to law under the seal of the State, shall be received as prima facie evidence in all courts of this State of the existence and due incorporation of such association. eral law. SEC. 5. All corporations formed under this act, shall be subject to gensubject to the provisions of chapter one hundred and ninetyone of Howell's Annotated Statutes, of the State of Michigan so far as the same may be applicable to corporations formed under this act, and the Legislature may at any time alter or amend this act. This act is ordered to take immediate effect. [ No. 192. ] AN ACT making an appropriation for the general expenses of the State government, salaries of State officers, expenses of State departments and expenses of the Legislature for the years eighteen hundred and ninety-one and eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and to provide a tax for the payment of the same. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, Appropriation That there shall be levied upon the aggregate of taxable real and purposes of. and personal estate of the State in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-one, the sum of five hundred fifty-two thousand and three hundred and eighty-three dollars, and for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-two, the sum of seven hundred eighteen thousand five hundred and fifty dollars, to [be] raised by tax, and the same is hereby appropriated for the payment of salaries of the State officers and other expenses of the State government for the aforesaid years which are not otherwise provided for. SEC. 2. The Auditor General shall apportion each year Tax for. This act is ordered to take immediate effect. [No. 193.] AN ACT to authorize and validate proceedings for the foreclosure of mortgages and the enforcement of liens and incumbrances against the real estate of private corporations whose term of existence has expired by limitation. mortgage, etc. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, When holder of That whenever the term of existence of any private corpo- may file bill, etc. ration organized under the laws of this State shall hereafter Proviso. Service of subpœna, etc. Proceedings. Of other proceedings, etc. To be governed expire, or shall have heretofore expired, by limitation, under the terms of its articles of incorporation, leaving any mortgage, lien or incumbrance upon its real estate, upon which there shall remain any sum owing and unpaid, it shall be lawful for the holder or owner thereof to file his bill in the circuit court in chancery, in the county where said real estate, or some portion thereof, is situate, for the foreclosure of such mortgage, or the enforcement of such lien or incumbrance, and proceed therein to a final decree and sale, the same, and with the same force and effect, as though the term of the corporate existence of said corporation had not expired: Provided, The complainant shall make the corporation and all the stockholders thereof, as far as known, defendants to said bill. SEC. 2. After After the filing of a bill of complaint in such case, a subpoena may issue and be served upon such corporation, by serving a copy of such subpoena upon the last president, vice president, secretary or treasurer of said corporation, if found within this State, and if no such officer shall be found in this State, on satisfactory proof by affidavit that [none of said officers can be found in this State, or that] none of them reside therein, the circuit judge of the court in which said suit or proceeding shall have been or shall hereafter be commenced, shall have full power and authority to make an order for the appearance of such defendant corporation at a day therein to be specified, in like manner as is provided by law for the bringing in of non-resident [defendants] defendant in courts of chancery and all the provisions [of] by law governing the practice of courts of chancery relative to the publication of such notice and the subsequent proceedings thereunder shall apply to and govern proceedings had under the provisions of this act and absent or non-resident stockholders made defendants in such suit or proceedings may be brought in in like manner. SEC. 3. All other proceedings in such matter shall be according to the usual rules and practice of courts of chancery in this State, and the final decree and sale, if any, shall have the same force and effect as in ordinary foreclosure proceedings in chancery. This act is ordered to take immediate effect. [ No. 194. ] AN ACT to prescribe the manner of conducting municipal and township elections and to prevent fraud and deception thereat. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, by general law, That all elections hereafter held in the various cities, villages and [townships] township in this etc. State, shall be in conformity with the provisions of the laws governing general elections so far as the same shall be applicable thereto, and all the provisions of such laws relative to the boards of election inspectors, the arrangement of polling places, the manner of voting and receiving votes, and the canvass and declaration of the result of such election, are hereby made applicable to such municipal and township elections, but the time for the opening and closing of the polls shall not be affected thereby. tion commission ers, etc. SEC. 2. The township board of each township, and such per- Who to be elecsons as shall be elected therefor by the common councils of the various cities and villages in this State, shall be the board of election commissioners for such township, city, or village respectively, and shall perform such duties relative to the preparation and printing of ballots as are required by law of the boards of election commissioners of counties, and like duties and privileges as are enjoined and granted by the laws governing general elections upon the various committees of the different political organizations are hereby prescribed for the city, village, or township committees in elections held pursuant hereto; except that it shall not be Vignette not necessary for the committees of the different political organizations to furnish a vignette or heading for the ballots other than to designate the name of the party or political organization which they represent. necessary, etc. furnish names, etc. SEC. 3. In municipalities governed by this law, the names Committees to of candidates shall be given by the committees of the various political organizations to the board of election commissioners of such municipality not less than five days before each election, and the proof copy of the ballot shall be open to the inspection of the chairman of each committee at the office of the township clerk, and city or village clerk or recorder, not less than two clear secular days before such election. This act is ordered to take immediate effect. [ No. 195. ] AN ACT providing for the erection of a cottage at the Eastern Michigan Asylum at Pontiac, for the purchase of additional land for said asylum and making provision for the payment for the same. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, May purchase That the board of trustees of the Eastern Michigan Asylum land. at Pontiac be and are hereby authorized to contract for and purchase pieces and parcels of land adjoining said asylum land not exceeding fifty acres, the title of the same to be unincumbered and to be vested in the State of Michigan. May erect cottage. Money for such purposes. SEC. 2. The trustees of [the] said Eastern Michigan Asylum are hereby authorized to erect a suitable cottage for the accommodation of patients of the said asylum on lands belonging to the State of Michigan. SEC. 3. For the purpose of the purchase of said land and the erection of said cottage the trustees of said Eastern Michigan Asylum are hereby authorized to expend any surplus fund in the treasury of the said asylum not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars. This act is ordered to take immediate effect. Who may incorporate. Manner of incorporation. Copy to be filed, etc. Shall not issue stock, etc. How funds derived, etc. To report annually. Subject to supervision. [ No. 196. ] AN ACT to incorporate mutual benefit societies, membership in which is confined to a single city, village or township. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That any society heretofore or hereafter organized, the membership in which is confined to the residents of a single township, village, or city, and having for its object the payment of a sum or sums of money to designated beneficiaries on the death of a member, or the payment of sick or funeral benefits, or all or any one of such objects, may become a body corporate in the following manner: At any regular meeting of such society, due notice having been given at the preceding regular meeting, a vote shall be taken on the question, "Shall this society become a body corporate?" and when said question shall have been adopted by a vote of two-thirds of the members present and voting thereon, said society shall file in the office of the Secretary of State, and also in the office of the county clerk, a copy of the constitution and by-laws of said society, and also a copy of the above vote certified to by the president and secretary of said society, and said society shall thereupon become a body corporate and may sue and be sued. SEC. 2. No corporation formed in accordance with the provisions of this act shall issue stock, or borrow money, or hold invested funds, or acquire or hold any real estate except such as may be necessary for the transaction of its business. SEC. 3. The funds of such corporation shall be derived from assessments upon members, and shall be collected and applied only as prescribed in its constitution and by-laws. SEC. 4. Every such corporation shall, annually, after each new election of officers, report to the insurance commissioner the location of its office, the names of its president, secretary and treasurer, and such other information as said commissioner may require, and shall be subject to the supervision of said commissioner according to the provisions of sections fifteen and twenty-two of act one hundred and |