at conspicuous places at each end of any bridge, owned or maintained by it, the length of whose span is not less than twentyfive feet, a notice with the following words in large characters: "One dollar fine for riding or driving over this bridge faster than a walk." Whoever shall ride or drive faster than a walk, over any bridge, upon which such notice shall have been placed, and shall then be, shall forfeit to the corporation the sum of one dollar for every such offense.

§ 144. Acts of directors prohibited.-No director of any such corporation shall be concerned, directly or indirectly, in any contract for making or working any road belonging to it during the time he shall be a director. No contractor, for the making of such road or any part thereof, shall make a new contract for the performance of his work, or any part of it, other than by hiring hands, teams, carriages or utensils to be superintended and paid by himself, unless such new contract and its terms be laid before the board of directors and be approved by them.

145. Actions for penalties.-No action to recover any penalty against any turnpike or plank-road corporation, shall be commenced or maintained against it, or any of its officers or agents, unless commenced within thirty days after the penalty was incurred.

146. Proof of incorporation.-In any action brought by or against any domestic turnpike or plank-road corporation, which shall have been in actual operation, and in possession of a road upon which it has taken toll for five consecutive years, next preceding the commencement of the action, parol proof of such corporate existence and use shall be sufficient to establish the incorporation of the corporation, for all the purposes of the action, unless the opposing party shall set up a claim in his complaint or answer duly verified of title in himself to the road, or some part therof stating the nature of his title, and right to the immediate possession and use thereof.

147. When stockholders to be directors.-When the whole number of stockholders in any turnpike or plank-road corporation shall not exceed the number of directors specified in the

certificate of incorporation, each stockholder shall be a director of such corporation, and the stockholders shall constitute the board of directors, whatever may be their number, and a majority thereof shall be a quorum for the transaction of business.

§ 148. Dissolution of corporation.-Every turnpike, plankroad or bridge corporation may be dissolved by the legislature when, by the income arising from tolls, it shall have been compensated for all moneys expended in purchasing, making, repairing and taking care of its road, and have received in addition thereto an average annual interest at the rate of ten per cent, and on such dissolution all the rights and property of the corporation shall vest in the people of the state. Any such corporation which shall not within two years from the filing of its certificate of incorporation, have commenced the construction of its road or bridge and actually expended thereon ten per cent of its capital, or which shall not within five years from such filing have completed its road or bridge, or, in case such bridge is destroyed, shall not rebuild the same within five years, or which, for a period of five consecutive years shall have neglected or omitted to exercise its corporate functions shall be deemed dissolved. Where the corporation has neglected or omitted for five years to exrcise its corporate functions, and its road-bed or right of way shall have been used as a public highway for that period, or where any such corporation shall have become dissolved, or where the road or any part of it of a turnpike or plank-road corporation, or the bridge of any bridge corporation, shall have been discontinued, such road-bed or right of way, and such discontinued road or bridge, and the road or bridge of any such dissolved corporation, shall thereafter be a public highway, with the same effect as if laid out by the commissioners of highways of the town, and be subject to the laws relating to highways and the erection, repairing and preservation of bridges thereon.

8 149. Towns must pay for lands not originally a highway.When the corporate existence of any plank-road or turnpike corporation shall have ceased by limitation of time, or where any judgment of ouster or dissolution, or restraining the exer

cise of its franchise has been rendered in any action against it, such portion of the line of its road as was built over lands which were originally purchased by it and not previously a public highway shall not be used as a public highway, nor be taken possession or control of by the town in which the same may be, or by any of the authorities thereof or be claimed or worked or used as a public highway until the town shall pay over to the treasurer,receiver or other legal representative of the corporation, or its assigns, the principal sum of the amounts paid

it for such lands, as shown by the deeds of conveyance thereof to it, and every such judgment shall provide accordingly. Such payments shall be made within three months after the expiration of the corporate existence of the corporation, or if any such judgment has been or shall be rendered within three months after service of written notice of the entry thereof on the supervisor of the town, and the person receiving such payment shall execute a proper discharge therefor and a conveyance to the town of all the title and interest which the corporation had in such lands at the expiration of its corporate existence.

§ 150. Highway labor upon line of plank-road or turnpike.— Every person liable for highway labor living or owning property on the line of any plank-road or turnpike may, on written application to the commissioners of highways of the town, on any day previous to making out the highway warrant by the commissioners, be assessed for the highway labor upon his property upon the line of such road, in the discretion of the commissioners to be worked out upon the line of such road as a separate road district, and the commissioners shall make a separate list of the persons and property so assessed, as for a separate road district, and deliver the same to one of the directors of the corporation owning such road, who shall cause such highway labor to be worked out on such road in the same manner that overseers of highways are required to do, and such directors shall possess the powers and have the authority to compel the performance of such highway labor or the payment of the tax therefor as such overseers now have by law, and shall

make like returns to the commissioner of highways, and any person so assessed may commute for the highway labor assessed upon him or his property by paying the sum now fixed by law as the commutation for such highway labor.

§ 151. Extension of corporate existence.-No turnpike, plankroad or bridge corporation shall extend its corporate existence, pursuant to the provisions of the general corporation law, without the written consent of the persons owning at least twothirds of its capital stock, nor without the consent of the board of supervisors of each county in which any part of its road or bridge is situated, which consent shall be given by a resolution of the board adopted at any regular or special meeting, and a copy of such resolution, certified by the clerk of the board, or verified by the affidavit of some member thereof, together with such consent of the stockholders, and a statement verified by the affidavit of the president and treasurer of the corporation, showing the actual capital expended upon the construction of the road, exclusive of repairs, the name of each town or ward through or into which the road passes, and, if any part of the road shall have been abandoned, the actual cost of the remaining part, exclusive of repairs, shall be filed with the certificate of the continuance of the corporate existence. No further abandonment of any road belonging to a corporation whose corporate existence has been so extended shall be made, except with the consent of a majority of the board of supervisors of the county in which the abandoned portion of the road may lie, which consent shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county.

2. Abatement of toll for watering troughs.-L. 1869, ch. 131, §§ 2 and 3, as added by L. 1872, chap. 274, authorize an abatement of toll for the construction and maintenance of watering troughs. Such sections are as follows:

§ 2. The directors of the several plank-road and turnpike road companies in this state shall annually abate three dollars from the toll of any inhabitant, not an innkeeper, or all of it if in the aggregate not exceeding that sum, who shall construct on his own land, and keep in repair, a watering trough beside the plank-road or turnpike road as the case may be, well supplied with fresh water, the surface of which shall be two or

more feet above the level of the ground, and easily accessible for horses with vehicles; but the commissioners of highways of the towns respectively shall, and they are hereby invested with full power and authority to designate those necessary for the public convenience along said plank-road or turnpike road, as the case may be, and no others than those designated shall be allowed both such abatement of toll and highway labor.

§ 3. In case the directors of any plank-road or turnpike road company in this state, shall refuse or neglect to abate the toll as aforesaid, in compliance with the provisions of the preceding section, any inhabitant having constructed a watering trough in compliance therewith, may notify the commissioner or commissioners of highways, as the case may be, of the town in which the same had been erected, of such neglect or refusal on the part of the directors aforesaid, whose duty it shall be, and who are hereby invested with full power and authority to proceed, without delay, to an examination of said watering trough; and if, upon a full examination of the same, the said commismissioner or commissioners, as the case may be, or a majority of them, shall deem it necessary for the convenience of the public that such watering trough ought to be maintained, he or they, as the case may be, shall forthwith notify the said directors accordingly, by serving a written notice on the president of the company, to that effect, in which the necessity of its maintenance shall be clearly expressed; and if the said directors shall still refuse or neglect to abate the toll as aforesaid, and shall demand and take toll, on application for such abatement, in violation of the provisions of the preceding section, for the space of thirty days after the service of such notice, they shall be liable to a penalty of twenty dollars, to be recovered in an action at law, at the suit of the person having constructed said watering trough.

3. Acquisition of turnpikes, plank roads and toll bridges by boards of supervisors.-L. 1899, ch. 594, authorizes the acquisition of the property of corporations and individuals owning toll roads and bridges. Such act, as amended, reads as follows:

§ 1. The board of supervisors of any county, except a county wholly within the city of New York, and except the counties