CHARTER AND BY-LAWS OF THE NEW YORK PRODUCE EXCHANGE. INCORPORATED 1862. CHARTER AMENDED FEBRUARY 13, 1868, MAY 19, 1873, AND MARCH 24, 1882. BY-LAWS ADOPTED APRIL 8, 1873; WITH AMENDMENTS TO MAY 3, 1883. CHARTER. CHAPTER 359.-An Act to incorporate the "New York Commercial Association." PASSED APRIL 19TH, 1862, THREE-FIFTHS BEING PRESENT. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1.-The members of the Association known as the "NEW YORK COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATION," and all other persons who may hereafter become associated with them under the provisions of this act, are hereby created a body corporate by the name of the "NEW YORK COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATION," with perpetual succession and power to use a common seal and alter the same at pleasure, to sue and be sued, to take and hold by grant, purchase, and devise, real and personal property, to an amount not exceeding three hundred thousand dollars, for the purposes of such Association, and to sell, convey, lease, and mortgage the same or any part thereof. SEC. 2.-The property, affairs, business, and concerns of the corporation hereby created shall be managed by a President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Twelve Managers, who, together, shall constitute a Board of Managers, to be elected annually, at such time and place as may be provided by the By-Laws; and the present officers and managers of the said Association, as now constituted, shall be the officers and managers of the said corporation until their present term of office shall expire, and until others under the provisions of this Act shall be elected in their place. All vacancies which may occur in the said Board by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled by the said Board. A majority of the members of such Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of busi ness. SEC. 3. The purposes of said corporation shall be to provide and regulate a suitable room or rooms for a Produce Exchange in the city of New York, to inculcate just and equitable principles in trade, to establish and maintain uniformity in commercial usages, to acquire, preserve, and disseminate valuable business information, and to adjust controversies and misunderstandings between persons engaged in business. The said corporation shall have power to make all proper and needful By-Laws, not contrary to the Constitution and Laws of the State of New York or of the United States. SEC. 4.—The said corporation shall have power to admit new members, and expel any member, in such manner as may be provided by the By-Laws. SEC. 5.-The Board of Managers shall annually elect, by ballot, five members of the Association, who shall not be members of the Board, as a committee to be known and styled the Arbitration Committee of the New York Commercial Association. The Board of Managers may, at any time, fill any vacancy or vacancies that may occur in said Committee for the remainder of the term in which the same shall happen. It shall be the duty of said Arbitration Committee to hear and decide any controversy which may arise between the members of the said Association, or any person claiming by, through, or under them, and as may be voluntarily subImitted to said Committee for arbitration; and such members and persons may, by an instrument in writing, signed by them and attested by a subscribing witness, agree to submit to the decision of such Committee any such controversy which might be the subject of an action at law, or in equity, except claims of title to real estate or to any interest therein, and that a judgment of the Supreme Court shall be rendered upon the award made pursuant to such submission. SEC. 6. Such Arbitration Committee, or a majority of them, shall have power to appoint a time and place of hearing of any such controversy, and adjourn the same from time to time as may be necessary, not beyond the day fixed in the submission for rendering their award, except by consent of parties; to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses |