113 Ga. 462 | Ga. | 1901
The power to create corporations resides in the State. If there is nothing in the constitution limiting or restricting the authority of the lawmaking body in this respect, this power is to be exercised by it. When this power is possessed by the State legislature, the question whether a given company of individuals has a legal corporate existence is to be determined by ascertaining whether the legislature has given its consent to the existence of such a corporation, either by the passage of a general law providing the manner in which corporations of that character may be formed, or by a special charter, if the legislature has authority to create corporations in this manner, and by ascertaining further whether there has been a compliance with the terms of the charter, whether the same be granted by special enactment or under the provisions of a general
If the lawmaking power of the State can, by giving its consent to a company of individuals to exercise corporate functions, confer upon such a company corporate authority which it would not have in the absence of legislative consent, on account of the failure to comply with the requirements which the law imposed upon persons desiring to form corporations, we can see no good reason why a company of individuals assuming to be a corporation under an erroneous impression as to their right to exercise corporate powers
It is to be kept in mind that, at the time this session of the General Assembly convened, there was nothing in the constitution of the State which at all restricted the power of the General Assembly as to the manner in which charters to street-railroad companies should be granted, and there was in existence no general law on the subject which could, in any view, have the effect of prohibiting the passage of even special charters, if the General Assembly saw proper to do so. This being true, the General Assembly was in complete control of this matter. In the exercise of the power it thus had, it passed, as above appears, two acts, each approved by the Governor on the same day, one providing that in the future all street and suburban railroad companies might be incorporated under the provisions of the general railroad law of 1881, and the other that the charters theretofore issued by the secretary of State under that law should be confirmed and made valid. Each of these
Judgment affirmed.