posited such other or additional security of the nature above required, as in the opinion of the board will make the value of the deposit equal to the deposit required. The face value of the security to be so kept on deposit shall not be less than the deposit required by this act. Every company exercising rights or powers such as are mentioned in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth clauses of section one hereof shall, before commencing business, and thereafter within the first ten days of each of the months of January and July of each year, file with the clerk of the county court, of each county in this state, a statement certified by the secretary, treasurer or other officer of such corporation, under oath or affirmation, showing the financial condition of the company on the first day of the month in which such statement is filed; which statement shall show all the resources and liabilities of the company and the nature of its investments, and such statement shall be made a part of the public records of each county, and be recorded in a well bound book to be kept for such purpose, and to be called "Surety Company Statements;" for which filing and recording the clerk of the county court shall be allowed a fee of fifty cents to be paid by the company making such statement. Any officer or employee of any such company who shall knowingly make any fraudulent, false or misleading statement, under the provisions of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not less than five hundred dollars and not more than twenty-five hundred dollars. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 13. Same: restrictions of powers. That no company which may be hereafter engaged in this State in the business of title insurance, fidelity insurance, or suretyship for the faithful performance of any office, shall accept money on deposit, or act in any fiduciary or other capacity not specificially permitted by the provisions of this act. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 14. Same: doing business without authority. That any company exercising or attempting to exercise any of the rights or powers mentioned in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth clauses of section nine hereof, without having fully complied with the provisions of section four hereof, by filing the certificate required with the secretary of state or by making the deposit required with the

auditor, or by making and filing the statements required to be made and filed with the clerks of the county courts, or any company violating the provisions of section 15 hereof, by accepting money on deposit, or acting in a fiduciary capacity, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars; and in such cases, whether or not there be a prosecution for the misdemeanor, the auditor, upon being satisfi ed of the facts, shall publish by at least two insertions, at the expense of such company, in a paper of general circulation in each of the cities of Wheeling, Parkersburg, Huntington, Charleston, Bluefield, Sistersville and Martinsburg, West Virginia, an advertisement of the fact that such company is not entitled to exercise the powers and rights mentioned in section nine, or is transacting, or attempting to transact, a banking or other business in violation of the provisions of section five, as the case may be. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 15. Same: supervision by auditor. That all companies which may be hereafter engaged in this state, in any of the classes of insurance mentioned in this act, and all title insurance, guaranty, surety and indemnity companies, and all other companies of similar character, shall be subject to the same examination and supervision, by the auditor, as now provided for insurance companies incorporated under the laws of the state of West Virginia. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 16. Same: agent for service of process. That every such company, exercising the powers and rights mentioned in section nine, shall, by a power of attorney duly acknowledged and authenticated, and filed by it in the office of the secretary of state, appoint some person residing in the State to accept service of process and notice, for the said company; and by the same instrument shall declare its consent that service of any process or notice in this State on said attorney, or his acceptance of service endorsed thereon, shall have the same effect as if served on him in the county where the surety is given or where the suit is instituted, and shall, in all respects, have the same effect as service thereof upon the company. And thereafter such acceptance by the said. attorney, or service upon him, anywhere in this State, shall be equivalent to the service in the county where the suit was brought. And, notwithstanding the provision of section two of chapter one hundred and twenty-four of the code, any suit may be instituted.

and process directed against any such company in the county in which the cause of action arises. And the process may be directed to the sheriff of the county where such company has its principal office, or where its attorney in fact resides. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 17. Same: approval of security by court. In any case where the approval of any security by any corporation, court, officer, or body, is now required by law, nothing in this act shall be so construed as to dispense with such approval. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 18. Foreign guaranty and surety companies. That any fidelity, guaranty, surety or other company duly incorporated under the laws of any other state or territory, of the United States or District of Columbia, having under its charter the power to become surety be, and the same is hereby authorized and empowered, upon complying fully with all the laws of West Virginia made in relation to domestic corporations incorporated for the same purpose, to exercise all the rights, powers and privileges that are conferred by law upon corporations duly incorporated under the laws of this State, and not.otherwise: provided, however, that in lieu of the examination by the commissioner of banking required of companies incorporated under the laws of this State, such companies incorporated under the laws of any other state, or of the United States, shall be subject to examination, supervision and regulation, by the auditor of the state under all the provisions of law applicable to fire insurance companies of other states doing business in this State. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 19. Same: prior contracts. All contracts and agreements made by any foreign corporation in this State, before such corporation shall have fully complied with the requirements of this act, and all acts made in relation to such corporations, shall be absolutely void and incapable of being enforced by either party. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 20. Same: process agent.-Said company shall, by power of attorney duly acknowledged and authenticated, and filed by it in the office of the auditor, appoint some person residing in the State to accept service of process and notice, in this State, for the said company; and by the same instrument shall declare its consent that service of any process or notice in this State on said attorney, or his acceptance of service endorsed thereon, shall

have the same effect as if served on him in the county where the surety is given or where the suit is instituted, and shall, in all respects, have the same effect as service thereof upon the company. And thereafter such acceptance by the said attorney, or service upon him, anywhere in this State, shall be equivalent to service in the county where the suit was brought, and for all purposes, to service upon its principal. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 21. Fidelity insurance in case of employee of common carrier. That if any common carrier authorized to do business in this state shall employ any person in any position of trust in this state, and shall apply to any surety company for surety for the faithful performance of duty by such employee, or for any form of fidelity insurance, and such surety company shall refuse to become responsible for such employee or, having become responsible for such employee, shall thereafter cancel such responsibility, such surety company shall furnish to such employee a statement in writing of the reasons therefor, which statement shall be sent by registered mail to such place as he shall designate, addressed to such employee, promptly on his demand therefor, in writing sent by registered mail to the head office of such surety company addressed to such surety company or officer thereof; and, unless such common carrier shall have other reasons for refusing to employ such employee than the facts of said refusal of such surety company to so become or continue responsible for such employee, such common carrier shall, on request of such employee, accept as security for the fidelity of such employee, a bond or obligation in the same form or substantially in the same form as that under which such surety refused to become or continue responsible for such employee, when duly executed and acknowledged by any other solvent surety company authorized to execute such bond or obligation in this state, or a personal bond with satisfactory surety and furnished to such common carrier by such employee without cost or expense to such common carrier; provided, however, that such surety company shall not be required to disclose the sources of its information regarding such employee, and that all communications, written or verbal, between such surety company or any officer or representative thereof and such common carrier or any officer or representative thereof or such employee or any person, firm or corporation mentioned in any statement made by such employee to such surety company shall be deemed privileged communications; and further

provided that no action or legal proceeding for libel or slander shall lie against such surety company or such common carrier by reason thereof. Any surety company or any common carrier which shall, by its officers or representatives, violate any of the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars. (Code 1916, c. 54C.)

§ 22. Demand by surety that creditor sue; judgment not binding on a surety not a party.—The surety or guarantor or indorser (or his personal representative) of any person bound by any contract may, if a right of action has accrued thereon, require the creditor (or his personal representative,) by notice in writing, forthwith to institute suit thereon; and if he be bound in a bond with collateral condition or for the performance of some collateral undertaking, he shall also specify in such requisition the breach of the condition or undertaking for which he requires suit to be brought; provided, however, that whether the surety, guarantor or indorser (or his personal representative) shall have given notice or not, no judgment or decree or recovery rendered, entered or had in any suit, action, prosecution or proceeding, to which the surety, guarantor or indorser (or his personal representative) was not a party regularly served with process, shall be in any wise binding on such surety, guarantor or indorser (or his personal representative), and notwithstanding such decree, judgment or recovery the surety, guarantor or indorser shall be allowed to make any such defense in any action, suit or proceeding instituted against him, that could have been made. in the suit in which such decree, judgment or recovery was had. (Code 1916, c. 101.)

§ 23. Same: discharge of surety for failure to sue. If such creditor or his representative shall not, in a reasonable time after such requisition, institute suit against every party to such contract who is a resident in this State, and not insolvent, and prosecute the same with due diligence to judgment and by execution, he shall forfeit his right to demand of such surety or his estate, and all his co-sureties and their estates, the money due by any such contract for the payment of money, or the damages sustained by any breach of the collateral condition, or undertaking