Public property, of action therefor, to vest in the people. allowable, may commence and prosecute suits, actions and judicial proceedings in the courts and tribunals of other States, Territories and districts of the United States and of foreign countries, for any of the wrongs or causes aforesaid; and, on the commencement of any money and such suit, action or judicial proceeding, all the money, funds, credits and right and property, the obtaining-receipt, conversion or disposition whereof may be therein complained of, together with all right, title and interest in the same, and all suits and actions, and cause and causes, right and rights of suit and action for or concerning the same, and for any damages or other compensation due, recoverable, or that might be had on account or by reason of the obtaining, receipt, conversion or disposition of the same, and all claims and demands for such damages and compensation, if not so previously vested, shall then forthwith be vested in the people of the State of New York, and are, by force of such suit, action or judicial proceeding, and of this act, transferred to and vested in the people of this State. Any action by the people of this State brought as prescribed in this section, may be commenced at any time within ten years after the cause of action shall accrue, and the time during which the defendant shall be absent from this State shall not be deemed a part of the time so limited for the commencement of the action. When action may be commenced Stay of other actions. § 2. Where an action has been heretofore brought or may hereafter be brought, by or on behalf of the people for any of the causes mentioned in the first section of this act, the court in which such action is pending, if it be a court of this State, may, on the motion of any party thereto, stay any other action which may have been, or may be brought for the same cause, by or on behalf of any public authority other than the State, whether or not such authority be a party to the action brought by or on behalf of the State, and may vacate any interlocutory order in the action so stayed; and the said court, if it be in parties. a court of this State, may likewise order to be brought in, as a party to the action by or on behalf of the State, any party to an action brought for the same cause by or on behalf of such other public Judgment authority; and a final judgment in the action by or on behalf of the State shall be a bar to any action for the same cause by or on behalf of any other public authority. Bringing a bar. Court may dispose of proceeds of recov ery. §3. Any court of this State having jurisdiction of any action by or on behalf of the State in the first and second sections of this act mentioned may, where any money, funds, credits, property, damages or compensation in this act mentioned or referred to, would not, if this act had not passed, have been recoverable by the State, make such order and judgment as may be just aud equitable for the disposition of the proceeds of any recovery in such action, so as to reinstate the lawful custody which was disturbed or impeded by the wrong complained of, or to cause application of such proceeds to be made to the objects and purposes for which such money, funds, credits or property was authorized to be raised or procured, after reimburing the State treasury out of such proceeds for all the expenses which may have been incurred Court may by the State in the premises. On a petition filed against the AttorneyGeneral by any corporation, board, officer, agency or agent, for or on property to behalf of any city, county, town, village, division, subdivision, departrightful ment or portion of the State, in the first section of this act mentioned, which shall not have been a party to the action prosecuted in a court of this State, by or on behalf of the State, but which shall claim to be lawfully entitled to the custody or disposition of the said money, funds, credits or property, the Supreme Court, at any special term thereof restore money or owner. held in the county of Albany, on a summary application, made after the recovery and actual receipt, by the people or into the State treasury, of any money, funds, credits, property, damages or compensation as aforesaid, may make such order as may be just and equitable for the disposition thereof, so as to reinstate the lawful custody which was disturbed or impeded by the wrong complained of. This section shall apply to actions now pending. General § 4. The Attorney-General on his own motion, wherever he shall Attorneydeem the same necessary or expedient for enforcing the interests, rights to proseor remedies of the people of this State, may, and upon the written cute request of the Governor, he shall, institute and prosecute any action or special proceeding in the cases mentioned in this act. § 5. [Repealed by Laws 1877, ch. 417, sub. 49, § 1.] 6. No act or part of any act, which is inconsistent with the provisions of this act, shall be of any effect to prevent the full operation of this act. §7. This act shall take effect immediately. Prior to this act the State could not maintain an action for moneys of a municipal corporation fraudulently appropriated. People v. Ingersoll, 58 N. Y. 1. Semble that the legislature has the power to confer such right of action and that the foregoing chapter is constitutional. People v. Tweed, 63 N. Y. 202. As to pleadings and bill of particulars under the above act, see People v. Tweed, 63 N. Y. 194. See, also, 73 N. Y. 556, and 10 J. & S. 325. This chapter repealed by L. 1880, chap 245. For similar provisions, see Co. Civ. Proc., $789, and $$ 1969 to 1976. actions. CHAP. 50. AN ACT in relation to the reduction of the capital stock of banks, banking associations, individual bankers, and other moneyed corporations, and for other purposes. PASSED March 20, 1875. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: tions, etc. SECTION 1. It shall be lawful for any banking association, now or Banking hereafter organized under the general banking laws of this State, or associa any other moneyed corporation required to report to the Banking may reDepartment, by chapter three hundred and twenty-four, laws of eighteen top. duce caplhundred and seventy-four, whose capital stock is unimpaired, to reduce its capital stock to an amount not less than one hundred thousand dollars; except in places where such banking associations are authorized to organize with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, and in such places the capital stock shall not be so reduced below the said sum of fifty thousand dollars. tendent of ment. $2. Whenever a banking association or corporation shall propose to How reduce its capital stock according to the first section of this act, due reduced. notice thereof shall be given to the Supeintendent of the Banking Notice to Department, in writing, signed by a majority of its board of directors, Superinand accompanied by the written assent to such reduction of at least Banking two-thirds in amount of the shareholders of such association or corpo- Depart ration. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent upon the filing of Superinsuch notice, and within a reasonable time thereafter, to make, or cause tendent to to be made, an examination of its books, property, effects and liabilities, amination concerning which the officers thereof may be examined on oath. and deterFrom the result of such examination, the said Superintendent shall certify determine and certify the reduced amount of capital stock of such banking association or corporation. make ex mine and reduction the exami nation, Expense of § 3. The expense of the examination herein provided for by the Superintendent of the Banking Department, or caused to be made by how pald. him, shall be paid by the banking association or corporation for whose benefit the application shall be made. Deter and certifl tendent to § 4. The determination and certificate in writing, made by the said mination Superintendent, of the amount to which the capital stock has been cate of reduced under this act, shall be recorded in the office of the clerk of Superin- the county in which such banking association or corporation shall be be record- located, and a certified copy thereof filed in the Bank Department of published. the State of New York; and the same shall be published by the said Superintendent once a week for six weeks successively, in the State paper, and at least one newspaper in the county where such association or corporation shall be located, at the expense of the banking association or corporation applying for such reduction of its capital stock. ed and Liability holders not to be impaired. Amending § 5. Nothing in this act contained shall in any way change or lessen the liability of the stockholders of any banking association or corporation reducing its capital stock under its provisions, to the billholders or other creditors thereof, or any indebtedness or engagement, now existing, or that may so exist, either absolutely or contingently, against such association or corporation prior to, or at the time when such reduction shall take place, or by which the rights, remedies or security of the then existing creditors, shall be weakened or impaired. § 6. Section nine of the act entitled "An act to organize a Bank 19, cht Department," passed April twelve, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, is 4 Edm. 170. hereby amended so as to read as follows: Laws 1851, Superin fix day for reports. § 9. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent of the Bank Departtendent to ment to fix upon and determine a day in respect to which the reports of incorporated banks, banking associations and individual bankers shall be made, as provided in chapter four hundred and nineteen of the session laws of one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven; and the said Superintendent shall, at least once in each quarter of a year, fix and designate some Saturday in such quarter in respect to which the said reports shall be made, and shall give notice thereof in the manner prescribed in the said chapter four hundred and nineteen; and the said reports shall be made to the said Superintendent as directed in the said chapter, and all willful false swearing in respect to such reports shall be deemed perjury and subject to the punishment prescribed by law for that offense. In case of neglect to make such report within five days from the mailing of the notice designating said day upon which such report shall be made, it shall be the duty of the Superintendent to cause the books, papers and affairs of the bank, association or banker so neglecting, to be examined as directed by the third section of said chapter four hundred and nineteen; and the reasonable expenses of such examination, to be certified by the said Superintendent, shall be charged to the bank, association or banker so neglecting, and shall be collected in the manner herein prescribed in respect to other charges against them; and it shall also be the duty of the Superintendent, in case of the failure or neglect of any bank, banking association or individual banker to make said report within the time above mentioned, to prosecute the same in any court of record and recover the sum of one hundred dollars for such neglect or refusal; and the money so recovered shall be paid into the treasury of this State, to be used for the purpose of defraying the miscellaneous expenses of the Bank Department. 7. This act shall take effect immediately. In Seeley v. New York Exchange National Bank, 1 Thomp. Nat. Bank Cases, 804, it was held by VAN HOESEN, J., in the New York court of common pleas, that where a National Bank reduces its capital stock it cannot retain as a surplus fund or for other purposes the whole or any part of the money which it receives for the stock which it retires.In the course of the opinion VAN HOESEN, J., said: "If the defendant had determined to discontinue business and wind up its affairs, there is no doubt that the shareholders would be entitled to a distribution of whatever assets of the corporation might remain after its debts had been paid. If, instead of surrendering all its corporate powers, a corporation, by reducing its capital, relinquishes a portion of them, it seems to me that the shareholders may properly claim a distribution of the money which the corporate body has no longer the right to use as capital. "The abandonment by a corporation of all its corporate rights gives the stockholders a right to the distribution of all the net assets; why should not an abandonment of a portion of those rights give the stockholders a right of distribution pro tanto? Of course, if the capital stock has been impaired, the amount to be returned to the stockholders must be diminished. * "The bank has gone out of existence as a,corporation with a capital of $500,000. Under a modified charter it commences a new life with a capital of $300,000. So far as the $200,000 of reduced stock is concerned, the corporation must be considered as having surrendered its charter and wound up its business. This being so there is no doubt of the duty it owes to the stockholders who own the retired stock." This reasoning and case are equally applicable to State banks. The reduction will not have been effected until the Superintendent of the Bank If the proper officers of a bank fail to make a report as required by law, whereby the See L. 1859, chap. 277, ante, vol. 4, p. 190, and post, p. 713. CHAP. 55. AN ACT to prohibit fishing near any fishway established by the State. PASSED March 20, 1875; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: sioners of SECTION 1. The commissioners of fisheries of this State, are hereby commisrequired and directed to erect and maintain at a distance of eighty sheries to rods from any fishway established or constructed by the State, in any erect sign stream or water-course within its boundaries, signboards, on which boards. shall be plainly painted or inscribed the words following, to wit: "Eighty rods to the fishway. All persons are by law prohibited from fishing in this stream between this point and the fishway," said signboards to be erected on both sides of the stream, above and below the fish way. any device Fishing § 2. No person shall catch or attempt to catch fish with whatever, within a distance of eighty rods from any fishway established near fishor constructed by the State, in any stream or water-course within its hibited, boundaries. way pro Punishment. Fine, how disposed of. § 3. Any person violating the provisions of the second section of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable, upon conviction thereof, to a fine not to exceed twenty-five dollars for every offense, or be subject to not more than ten days imprisonment in the county jail; said fine to be recovered before any justice of the peace of the county wherein the offense may be committed, who shall issue his warrant for the arrest of the offender upon the complaint of any person duly verified. §4. Any fine collected by virtue of the provisions of this act shall be paid to the overseer of the poor of the town in which the offense was committed to be applied by said overseer to the credit of the poor fund of said town. This act superseded by L. 1879, chap. 534, §§ 29 and 30; post, p. 827. Amending CHAP. 56. AN ACT further to amend chapter three hundred and fortyeight of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty, entitled "An act to secure to creditors a just division of the estates of debtors who convey to assignees for the benefit of creditors." PASSED March 20, 1875. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section three of chapter three hundred and forty-eight $ 3, ch. 348, of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty, is hereby amended so as to 4 Edm.484. read as follows: Laws 1860, Bond of assignee. Account ing by assignee. §3. The assignee or assignees named in any such assignment, shall, within ten days after the delivery to the county judge of the inventory or schedule above specified (and before he shall have power or authority to sell, dispose of, or convert, to the purposes of the trust, any of the assigned property), enter into a bond to the People of the State of New York, in an amount to be ordered and directed by the county judge of the county where such debtor or debtors resided at the date of such assigment, with sufficient sureties to be approved of by such judge, and conditioned for the faithful discharge of the duties of such assignee or assignees, and for the due accounting for all moneys received by such assignee or assignees, which bond shall be filed in the county clerk's office, where the assignment is recorded. § 2. Section four of said chapter is hereby amended so as to read as follows: § 4. After the lapse of one year from the date of such assignment, the county judge of the county where such inventory is filed, shall, upon the petition of any creditor of such debtor or debtors, have power to issue a citation or summons compelling such assignee or assignees to appear before him and show cause why an account of the trust fund created by any such assignment shall not be made, and to decree payment of such creditors' just proportional part of such fund; and such county judge shall also have the same power and jurisdiction to compel such accounting as is now possessed by surrogates in relation to the estates of deceased persons; and also power to examine the parties to such assignment, and other persons on oath, in relation to such assign. ment, and accounting and all matters connecting therewith, and to |