Fairhope Single Tax Corp. v. Melville

69 So. 466, 193 Ala. 289, 1915 Ala. LEXIS 179
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJune 10, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 69 So. 466 (Fairhope Single Tax Corp. v. Melville) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fairhope Single Tax Corp. v. Melville, 69 So. 466, 193 Ala. 289, 1915 Ala. LEXIS 179 (Ala. 1915).

Opinion

McCLELLAN, J.

The following act (Acts 1903, p. 342) was approved, and, if valid, became operative on October 1, 1903: “An act to provide for the organization and regulation of corporations not for pecuniary profit in the sense of paying interest or dividends on stock, but for the benefit of its members through their mutual co-operation and association.

“Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of Alabama, that ten or more persons desiring to associate themselves together, not for pecuniary profit in the sense of paying interest or dividends on stock but for mutual benefit through the application of co-operation, single tax, or other economic principles, may become a body corporate in the manner following:

[292]*292“Sec. 2. The parties proposing to form such corporation shall file with the probate judge in the county in which it proposes to establish itsef, a declaration in writing, setting out the name of said proposed corporation, the names of the charter members, and the purposes of said corporation.

“Sec. 3. Upon the filing of such declaration the judge of probate shall issue to such corporation a charter which shall be perpetual — subject to revocation at any time by the Legislature of Alabama.

“Sec. 4. It may elect such officers as it may deem necessary, in such manner and for such terms as it may provide and remove the same at any time, and adopt such constitutions and by-laws as it may see fit not in conflict with the Constitution and laws of this state.

“Sec. 5. Such corporation shall have the power to buy, sell, and lease and mortgage real estate, to build and operate wharves, boats, and other means of transportation and communication, build, erect and operate waterworks, electric lighting and power companies, libraries, schools, parks, and do any other lawful thing, incident to its purpose, for the mutual benefit of its members; and may admit such other persons to participate in its benefits as it may see fit and upon such conditions as it may impose.”

The like provisions appear in Code, § 3573.

The Pairhope .Single Tax Corporation was undertaken to be made a body corporate, in virtue of and in accordance with the authority of the above enactment, on August 9, 1904. The declaration of incorporation contained these recitals or assertions: “We, the undersigmed, desiring to form a corporation under the provisions of an act for the organization of corporations [293]*293not for pecuniary benefit, in the sense of paying interest or dividends ón stock, but for the benefit of its members through their mutual co-operation and associatiton, approved October 1, 1903, do hereby declare:

“The purpose of said corporation is to demonstrate the beneficiency, utility and practicability of the single tax theory, with the hope of its general adoption by the governments of the future, in the meantime securing for ourselves and our children and associates the benefits to be enjoyed from its application as fully as existing laws will permit, and to that end to conduct a model community free from all forms of special privileges, securing to its members therein equality of opportunity, the full reward of its individual efforts and the benefits of co-operation in matters of general concern, holding all land in the name of the corporation and paying all taxes on the same and improvements and other personal property of lessees thereon, charging the lessees the fair rental value, and in the prosecution of its plans for the general welfare of its members to do and perform all the acts and exercise all the powers permitted under section 5 of said act!”

The charter of the incorporation, omitting presently unimportant features, contains these provisions: “* * * I do hereby declare the parties aforesaid, their successors and associates, duly incorporated under the name of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation: that the existence of said corporation shall be perpetual subject to the right of revocation by the Legislature. Said corporation has the power to elect such officers as it may deem necessary in such manner and for such terms as it may provide, and remove the same at any titme, and adopt such constitution and by-laws as it may see fit, not in conflict with the Constitution and laws of this [294]*294state. Such corporation shall have the power to buy, sell and lease real estate, to build and operate wharves, boats and other means of transportation and communication, build, erect and operate waterworks, electric lighting and power companies, libraries, schools, parks and do any other lawful thing incident to its purpose for the mutual benefit of its members, and may admit, such other persons to participate in its benefits as it may see fit to upon such conditions as it may impose.”

The Constitution adopted by the incorporation embraces these provisions: “Believing that the economic conditions under which we now live and labor are unnatural and unjust, in violation of natural rights, at war with the nobler impulses of humanity, and opposed to its highest development, and believing that it is possible by intelligent association, under existing laws, to free ourselves from the greater part of the evils of which we complain, we, whose names are hereunto subscribed, do associate ourselves together and mutually pledge ourselves to the principles set forth in the following constitution.

“Its purpose shall be to establish and conduct a model community or colony, free from all forms of private monoply, and to secure to its members therein equality of opportunity, the full reward of individual efforts, and the benefits of co-operation in matters of general concern.

“Any person over the age of eighteen years, whose' application shall be approved by the executive council and who shall contribute to the corporation one hundred dollars, shall be a member of the corporation: Provided, that on petition of ten per cent, of the qualified membership filed with the secretary within thirty [295]*295days after action on any applicant by the executive council, such application shall be submitted to a vote of that membership.

“There shall be no individual ownership of land within the jurisdiction of the corporation, but the corporation shall hold as trustee for its entire membership the title to lands upon which its community shall be maintained.

“Its lands shall be equitably divided and leased to members at an annually appraised rental which shall equalize the varying advantages of location and natural qualities of different tracts and convert into the treasury of the corporation, for the common benefit of its members, all values attaching to such lands, not arising from the efforts and expenditures of the lessees.

“Land leases shall convey full and absolute right to the use and control of lands so leased and to the ownership and disposition of all improvements made or products produced thereon so long as the lessee shall pay the annually appraised rentals provided in the foregoing section and may be terminated by the lessee after six months’ notice in writing to the corporation and the payment of all rent due thereon.

“Leaseholds shall be assignable, but only to members of the corporation. Such assignments must be filed for record in the office of the secretary, and the person to whom the same is assigned thereby becomes the tenant of the corporation.

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Bluebook (online)
69 So. 466, 193 Ala. 289, 1915 Ala. LEXIS 179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fairhope-single-tax-corp-v-melville-ala-1915.