Costs Action by shipper Proviso Costs Violation of Penalty Disposition of penalties Proviso Action in name of State and provided, further, that in any action, hearing or proceeding in any court, the classification, rate, tolls, charges, regulations and orders made, fixed and established by said Board shall prima facie be deemed to be just, reasonable and proper. All costs and expenses incurred in the hearing, trial or appeal of any action brought under this section, shall be fixed and assessed as by the court may seem just and equitable. Section 28. Any shipper, or other person interested, may bring an action in the District Court of the County where the principal office or place of business of such railroad is situated, or in any county where any classification, rate, toll, charge, regulation or order of the Board is applicable, against the said Board of Railroad Commissioners as defendant, to determine whether or not any such classification, rate, toll, charge, regulation or order made, fixed or established by the Board under the provisions of this act is just and reasonable; provided, that until the final decision in any such action, the classification, rate, toll, charge, regulation or order of the Board affecting rates or charges shall be deemed to be final and conclusive; except as herein otherwise provided; and provided, further, that in any action, hearing or proceeding in any court, the classifications, rates, tolls, charges, regulations and orders made, fixed and established by said Board shall prima facie be deemed to be just, reasonable and proper. Costs shall be awarded in all actions brought under the provisions of this section as in other civil causes. Section 29. If any railroad shall wilfully violate any provision of this act, or shall do any other act herein prohibited, or shall refuse to perform any and all lawful orders emanating from said railroad commission relating to rates and charges, or any other duty enjoined upon it, for which a penalty has not herein been provided, for every such act of violation it shall pay to the state of Montana a penalty of not more than Five Hundred Dollars. Section 30. All penalties and forfeitures incurred, levied and made under the provisions of this act, shall be collected by said Board of Railroad Commissioners and paid over to the State Treasurer and credited to the General Fund; provided, however, that should the said Board fail or refuse to institute appropriate action for the recovery of any penalty or forfeiture provided for herein, for the space of sixty days after notice of the cause of complaint by such person or shipper aggrieved, such person or shipper may institute and prosecute such action in the name of the state against such railroad, in the same manner as could the said Board. Section 31. No railroad commissioner, nor the said secretary shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or request from, or recommend to any railroad corporation, or any officer, attorney or agent thereof, the appointment of any person to any place or position. Nor shall any railroad corporation, its attorney or agent, offer any place, appointment or position or other consideration to such commissioners or either of them, nor to any clerks or employees of the commission or of the Board, neither shall the commissioners or either of them, nor their secretary, clerks, agents, employees or experts, accept, receive or request any pass from any railroad in this state, for themselves or for any other person, except as herein otherwise provided, or any present, gift or gratuity of any kind from any railroad corporation, and the request or acceptance by them, or either of them, except as herein specified, of any such place or position, pass, presents, gifts or other gratuity, shall work a forfeit of the office of the commissioner or commissioners, secretary, clerk or clerks, agent or agents, and employee or employees, expert or experts, requesting or accepting the same. Soliciting or receiving favors, gifts prohibited or gratuities Any person violating any of the provisions of this section Misdemeanor shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than Five Hundred Dollars, or imprisonment not more than six months, or by both Penalty such fine and imprisonment. Annual re roads Statements or deemed neces reports Section 32. The Board shall require verified annual reports from each and every railroad owning, operating or having ports by railany line of railroad in this State, prescribe the manner in which such reports shall be made, and may require specific answers to all questions upon which the Board may desire information. It shall be the duty of the president or other officer in charge of such railroad to make such report and answers to the Board. The Board may, at such other times as it may deem necessary, require such other information, statements or reports, as may be deemed necessary, and fix the time for filing of the same. Any railroad failing or refusing to make or file such annual furnish report, or failing or refusing to furnish such additional information, statements or reports, as may be demanded by the Board, shall forfeit the sum of Five Hundred Dollars for each day that such refusal or neglect shall be continued. sary Failure to Penalty Annual report of Board to Governor Section 33. Said Board shall make and submit to the Governor annual reports containing a full and complete account of the transaction of their office, together with such facts, suggestions and recommendations as may be by them deemed necessary, which report shall be published as the reports of other departments of the state. The said report shall contain What to con tain Duty of Board to enforce and prosecute Violations to be reported to proper law officers a statement as to the number of accidents investigated by the Board, as herein provided, and the number of persons killed or injured in them, and generally the causes of such accidents. Section 34. It is hereby made the duty of such Board to see that the provisions of this act and all laws of this state concerning railroads are enforced and obeyed, and that,violations thereof are promptly prosecuted and penalties due the state therefor recovered and collected. And said Board shall report all such violations, with the facts in their possession, to the Attorney General or other officer charged with the enforcement of the laws, and request him to institute the proper proceedings; and all suits between the state and any railroad shall have precedence in all courts over all civil causes, original proceedings in the Supreme Court excepted. If any commissioner Commissioner shall fail to perform his duties as provided for in this act, he may be removed from office as provided for by Title II, Chapter II, Part II, of the Penal Code, and upon complaint made and good cause shown, the Governor is authorized to suspend any commissioner or commissioners, and if in his judgment, the exigencies of the case require, the Governor is authorized to appoint temporarily some competent person or persons to perform the duties of such suspended commissioner or commissioners during the period of such suspension. Failure of to perform duties Governor may suspend and make temporary appointment Right of ac tion not released or waived Appropriation Repealing clause When Act takes effect Section 35. This act shall not have the effect to release or waive any right of action by the state or any person for any right, penalty or forfeiture which may have arisen, or may hereafter arise, under any law of this state, and all penalties accruing under this act shall be cumulative to each other, and a suit for or recovery of one, shall not be a bar to the recovery of any other penalty. Section 36. The sum of $50,000.00, or so much thereof as may be needed, is hereby appropriated from moneys not otherwise appropriated, for the years 1907 and 1908 for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this act. Section 37. All acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed. Section 38. This act shall take effect and be in full force from and after its passage and approval by the Governor. E. W. KING, Speaker of the House. EDWIN L. NORRIS, President of the Senate. (Note by the Secretary of State.) This hill having remained with the Governor five days and the Legislative Assembly being in session, it has become a law this 26th day of February, 1907. Filed February 20, 1907, at 2:45 p. m. A. N. YODER, Secretary of State. CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF MONTANA. ARTICLE XII. REVENUE AND TAXATION. Sec. 7. The power to tax corporations or corporate property shall never be relinquished or suspended, and all corporations in this State, or doing business therein, shall be subject to taxation for State, county, school, municipal and other purposes, on real and personal property owned or used by them and not by this constitution exempted from taxation. Daly Bank & Trust Company vs. Board of Commissioners, 33 Northwestern Life Insurance Company vs. Lewis and Clark County, Sec. 16. All property shall be assessed in the manner prescribed by law except as is otherwise provided in this constitution. The franchise, roadway, roadbed, rails and rolling stock of all railroads operated in more than one county in this state shall be assessed by the state board of equalization, and the same shall be apportioned to the counties, cities, towns, townships and school districts in which such railroads are located, in proportion to the number of miles of railway laid in such counties, cities, towns, townships and school districts. Missouri River Power Company vs. Steele, 32 Mont. 433. Danforth vs. Livingston, 23 Mont. 558. Sec. 17. The word property as used in this article is hereby declared to include moneys, credits, bonds, stocks, franchises and all matters and things (real, personal and mixed) capable of private ownership, but this shall not be construed so as to authorize the taxation of the stocks of any company or corporation when the property of such company or corporation represented by such stocks is within the state and has been taxed. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company vs. Lewis and Gelsthrope vs. Furnell, 20 Mont. 299. ARTICLE XIII. PUBLIC INDEBTEDNESS. Sec. 1. Neither the state, nor any county, city, town, municipality, nor other subdivision of the State shall ever give or loan its credit in aid of, or make any donation or grant, by subsidy or otherwise, to any individual, association or corporation, or become a subscriber to, or a share holder in, any company or corporation, or a joint owner with any person, company or corporation, except as to such ownership as may accrue to the state by operation or provision of law. Gelsthrope vs. Furnell, 20 Mont. 299. ARTICLE XV. CORPORATIONS OTHER THAN MUNICIPAL. Sec. 1. All existing charters, or grants of special or exclusive privileges, under which the corporations or grantees shall not have organized or commenced business in good faith at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall thereafter have no validity. Morrison vs. Clark, 24 Mont. 514. Sec. 2. No charter of incorporations shall be granted, extended, changed or amended by special law, except for such municipal, charitable, educational, penal or reformatory corporations as are or may be under the conrol of the state; but the legislative assembly shall provide by general law for the organization of corporations hereafter to be created; Provided, That any such laws shall be subject to future repeal or alterations by the legislative assembly. Allen vs. Ajax Mining Company, 30 Mont. 490. Morrison vs. Clark, 24 Mont. 514. Sec. 3. The legislative assembly shall have the power to alter, re voke or annul any charter of incorporation existing at the time of the adoption of this constitution, or which may be hereafter incorporated, whenever in its opinion it may be injurious to the citizens of the State. Sec. 4. The legislative assembly shall provide by law that in all elections for directors or trustees of incorporated companies, every stockholder shall have the right to vote in person or by proxy the number of shares of stock owned by him for as many persons as there are directors or trustees to be elected, or to cumulate said shares, and give one candidate as many votes as the number of directors multiplied by the number of his shares of stock shall equal, or to distribute them, on the same principle, among as many candidates as he shall think fit, and such directors or trustees shall not be elected in any other manner. |