The daily phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, January 04, 1866, Image 1
THE DAILY
Daily Paper $10 a Year
"Let our Just Censure
PHON1X
Attend the True Event.'
Tri-Weekly $7 a Year.
BY JULIAN A. SELBY.
COLUMBIA, S. C., THURSDAY MORNING, JANUARY 4, 1866.
VOLUME I-NO. 23Q
ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
AN ACT TO PBOVTDK A MODE BY WHICH TO PERPETUATE TESTIMONY IN
REDATION TO DEEDS, WELDB, CHOSES TS ACTION, OTHER PAPERS, AND
RECORDS DESTROYED OR LOST DURING THE RECENT WAR.
I. Be it enacted by the Senate and House cf Representatives, now met
and sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, That
whenever, hereafter, in any suit which shall be pending in any Court of
this State, it shall be necessary, for the maintenance of the action or
defence, that proof shall be adduced of the contents of any document,
whether the same be a deed, will, chose in action, Or other private writing,
or a public record, or of any other natnre whatever, proper to be proven, and
it shall be proven, (by the af?davit of the party, in case he be unable
otherwise io make the proof,} that such document was in existence and in the
possession of any person during the recent ?war, and cannot now be found,
it shall be presumed that such document was destroyed or lost by reason
of the existence of the war ; and if such presumption shall not be rebut
^.ted to the satisfaction of the Court, the party needing the proof of the
contents of such document shall, without further proof of loss, be at
liberty to introduce secondary evidence of such contents, and for this
purpose recitals in other deeds or writings, proven or acknowledged to be
genuine, whether between the same parties or not, and statements in the
record of any snit in any of the Courts, produced from the proper place
of custody, or in the printed volumes- of State reports, published by
authority of the General Assembly, although such statements be in cases
not between the parties to the suit in which the evidence offered, or those
under whom they claim, shall be admissible for the consideration of the
Court cr Jury having jurisdiction of the issues of fact : Provided, how?
ever, That in every such case the party tendering such evidence shall have
first made in open Court, or before some Judge of the Superior or Inferior
Courts of this State, or some Commissioner residing out of the State,
duly qualified to take affidavits to be used within the State, an affidavit
that the said document is not in his possession or power to produce, and
so far as he knows, is not in existence, and that he verily behoves that the
same was in fact destroyed or carried away, or in some other v vy lost or
destroyed, and shall also produce, in open Court, au affidavit, n_ .de by the
person in whose possession the party tendering shall swear such document
was when he last knew of it, unless the party tendering was himself the
last person in possession, that the same was in fact destroyed or carried
away, if he knows it to be so, or if, without positive knowledge, that he
believes it to be so, and setting forth the facts and circumstances which
induce such belief, if such person is other than the said party in Court
tendering the secondary evidence of contents, and is alive and within the
State.
LT. The plaintiff or plaintiffs, or any o? them, in any judgment or decree,
the record whereof has been destroyed or abstracted, or lost during !jhe
recent war, or his personal representative, or other person claiming under
or through him, or any person whatever having interest in the preserva?
tion of the evidence of such judgment or decree, may, upon notice of not
less than ten days served personally upon the defendant or defenda:>ts
(if more than one) therein, or those upon whom his, her or their liability
thereunder has devolved, or others interested to oppose the application,
make application to the Court in which such judgment or decree was
rendered, for leave to substitute a new record, and if, upon hearing the
evidence on each side, the Court is satisfied of the existence and loss of
substitue shall be made, ascertaining as
nal parties and the plaintiff's
gment
desire a discovery from any party interested, he shall, on making oath, as j
in bills of discovery, be permitted to send with the subpoena interroga?
tories, -which shall be answered as in bills for discovery. And whether or
not there shall appear to be other parties besides the applicant who are
interested, the Master or Commissioner shall publish the notice of appli?
cation for three months in the same manner as now prescribed for notices
to absent defendants in Equity, and ail parties who may think themselves
interested may come in as they had been served with subpoena.
"VT. At the expiration of the said three months, the Master or Com?
missioner ?11811 proceed to take the evidence if the party making applica?
tion therein asks for leave to have evidence of the true location of one or
more tracts of land taken for preservation, the Master or Commissioner
shall have authority to issue a rule of survey to a Deputy Surveyor, to be
selected by himself for that purpose, to whom all the papers and other
evidence of location shall be furnished by the party or parties in interest,
and who shall return his plats duly certified to vhe Master or Commissioner
issuing the order, on or before a day to be therein fixed by him.
VLT. The evidence so taken shall be preserved, and the parties may have
the same recorded in the offices of the Register of Mesne Conveyances
and the Secretary of State, and (if it relates to records of any Court,) in
that Court in which the lost or destroyed record which it proposes to
prove was made.
VIII. The evidence so taken, perpetuated and recorded, shall be
received in all Courts, subject to the same rules, as to competency and
credibility, as any other evidence, except as hereinbefore provided.
IX. For performing the duty assigned them, the Attorney-General a^d
Solicitors shall receive twenty dollars for each bill, and the Masters and
Commissioners the usual fees for filing the bill and making and publish?
ing the general notice thereof, and tho printer the usual fees for printing
the same ; all of which shall be paid by the State Treasurer on the certifi?
cate of any Chancellor. The costs of all other proceedings shall be paid
by the parties who seek the relief preferred "by the bill, except that in
cases in which there is a conflict of interest, the Chancellor shall decide
which party shall pay them.
X. The bills shall remain on the docket for five years, unless thc Gen?
eral Assembly shall sooner order them stricken off, during all which time
all persons may come in and seek this relief intended.
XI. That no law now in force, or which may be passed at this session
of the General Assembly, of the character of a stay btw or law prohibit?
ing suits in Court, shall be held as applying to or affecting thc provisions
of this Act : Provided, This section shall not be construed to authorize
the collection of any debt or money contrary to the provisions of auy stay
law now in force or hereafter enacted.
XU. Nothing herein contained shall prevent any ono from establishing,
on the trial of any cause, any lost paper, according to the rules of evidenco
now existing.
In the Senate House, the twenty-first day of December, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
W. D. PORTER,
President of the Senate.
C. H. SIMONTON,
Speaker of tho Houso of Representatives.
Approved : JAMES L. ORB.
AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE IRELAND CREEK TIMBER CUTTERS COM?
PANY.
I. Be. it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, now mel 'and
j sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of (he same, That the
^of a corporate companj- is hereby^-the^^r^^jii
9 *' ? ' "MHH?teaM : : i : e ; the 1:. ad-.^B, j&i ^??II. I U J-i ?^H ?h>??s?r
VT. That in the said election, and in all future elections of President
and Directors, and in the making, altering and repealing of bye-laws, and
in determining on measures involving the interests of the company, at
any stated or occasional corporate meeting, the votes of the stockholders
shall be taken and governed by the scale and regulations following : The
owner of one or two shares shall be entitled to one vote ; tho owner of
three or four shares shall be entitled to two votes ; the owner of five or
six shares shall be entitled to three votes; the owner of seven or eight
shares shall be entitled to f^ c votes ; the owner of not less than nine nor
more than eleven shares, to five votes ; the own? of not less than twelve
nor more than fifteen shares, to six votes ; the owner of not less than
sixteen nor more than twenty shares, to seven votes ; the owner of not
less than twenty-one nor more than twenty-six shares, to eight votes ; the
owner of not less than twenty-seven nor more than thirty-three shares, to
nine votes; the owner of not less than thirty-four nor more than forty
shares, to ten votes ; and tho owner of shares above forty shall be entitled
to one vote for every ten sharers above forty. No one but a subscriber
shall be capable of being a proxy; and the appointment of a proxy shall
be in writing, signed by the stockholder appointing ; any person offering
to vote as a proxy may be required by any stockholder to swear that he
has no interest, directly or indirectly, in the stock ou which he offers to
vote as proxy ; a trustee of stock shall not vote on shares held by him in
trust expressed or declared, where the cesiui que trust holds other shares "
cither iu his own name or in the name of another trustee ; but the cestui que
trust may vote on all shares owned by him, whether legally or equitably,
according to the scale aforesaid.
VII. That the election for President and Directors shall be made <
annually, according to the bye-laws to be made for the purpose ; and in
case any vacancy occur in the Board between two periods of general elec?
tion, a majority of the Board of Directors, at any regular or stated
meeting of the Board, may elect by ballot, from the stockholders, a person
to fill the vacancy so occurred until the next general election of Directors.
But if it happens that the day of annual election of President and Direc?
tors shall pass without election, as to all or any of them being effected,
the corporation shall not be dissolved nor discontinued thereby, but it
shall be lawful, on any other day, to hold and to make such election in
such manner as may be prescribed by the bye-laws of the corporation,
subject to the scale and regulations of tho sixth section of this Act.
VDT. That the said company, to be organized as aforesaid, shall be
called " The Ireland Creek Timber Cutters Company," and have perpetual
succession of members ; may make and have a common seal, and break
and alter it at pleasure ; may sue and be sued, answer and be answered
unto, by their corporate name aforesaid, in all Courts of Law and Equity,
or judicial tribunals in this State, and shall be capable, at all times, of
making and establishing, altering and revoking, all such regulations,
rules and bye-laws for the government of the company and its direction
as they may find necessary and proper for effecting the ends and purposes
intended by the association, and contemplated by this Act : Provided,
Such regulations, rules and bye-laws be not repugnant to the Constitution
and Laws of the State.
IX. That the said L-eland Creek Timber Cutters Company shall have
I power and capacity to purchase, take and hold in fee-simple, or for years,
to them and their successors, any lands, tenements or hereditaments, they
might lind necessary for the purpose of procuring timber and other cut
wood for the rafting hereinbefore expressed, and in like manner to pur
chase all private right ul way, or make courses thar, may run into or across
the route of the head-waters hereinbefore described, and, also, such? lands
contiguous thereto as may be found necessary for the erection of such
buildings as may be convenient for the purposes of the said company ;
Mfl^^^fho said company shall have power to dig and deepen, so as to make
felt rat'tieg, the head-waters aforesaid that may be across and
p^^^^fflB^^mt|_i;t)a.d that may be in their route : Prmvi^^Tl^i^j^^id