al companies operating such railway lines, establish joint schedules of rates, fares, charges or classification for such lines or roads, such rates, fares, charges or classifications shall be printed and kept in each station of such railroad lines or routes, the same as though such lines were owned or operated by a single railroad.

14. CHANGES IN RATES TO BE PUBLISHED.] No change in the classification shall be made in the rates, fares or charges which have been established and published as aforesaid, by any railroad company in compliance with the requirements of section 15, except after ten days publication by posting in stations, which notice shall plainly state the changes proposed to be made in the schedule then in force, and the time when the change schedule shall go into effect, and the proposed changes shall be shown by printing new schedules or shall be plainly indicated upon the schedules in force at the time and kept for public inspection. And when any railroad company shall have established and published its classifications, rates, fares, or charges in compliance herewith, it shall be unlawful for such company to charge, demand, collect or receive from any person, company or corporation a greater or less compensation for the transportation of persons or property or for any service in connection therewith, than is specified in such published schedule or classification, rates, fares or charges, as may at the time be in force.

§ 15. DUTIES OF COMMISSIONERS TO ENFORCE ACT-COMPLAINTS.] It shall be the duty of any railroad commissioners to personally investigate and ascertain whether the provisions of this act are violated by any railroad company and to visit the various lines of each railroad for that purpose as often as practicable and whenever the facts in any manner ascertained by said commissioners whether by personal investigation or by petition or complaint of any citizen of the Territory, shall in their judgment warrant such prosecution, it shall be the duty of said commissioners to immediately cause suit to be commenced and prosecuted against any railroad company who may violate the provisions of this act.

Any injured person, firm, corporation or association, or any mercantile, agricultural or any manufacturing society, or any body politic or municipal corporation or organization, may make complaint to such railroad commissioners of the violation of any of the provisions of this act by any railroad company, and if it appears upon investigation of the charges contained in said complaint that there is any reason to believe that said railroad company has violated any of the provisions of this act and thereby injured the complainant, it shall be the duty of said commissioners to institute action against such offending railroad company.

16. SUITS AND PROSECUTIONS.] All such suits and prosecutions may be instituted in any county in this Territory through or into which the line of the railroad company violating the act may extend, and no such suit commenced by said railroad commissioners

shall be dismissed except by the consent of the said commissioners and the attorney general.

§ 17. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S DUTY.] The attorney general of the Territory of Dakota shall be ex-officio attorney for said railroad commissioners and shall give them such counsel and advice as they may from time to time require, and it shall be his duty to institute and prosecute all actions which said commissioners may deem proper, and he shall render to such railroad commissioners all counsel, advice and assistance which they may require in carrying out the provisions of this act or any law of this Territory.

PROSECUTED IN NAME OF TERRITORY.]

Said actions shall

And the said attorney general may, if he sees fit, call upon the district attorney of the county in which an action is pending and prosecuted by the said attorney general as herein provided, to assist in such county in the prosecution of said action therein, and when so called upon it shall be the duty of said district attorney to render proper and necessary assistance in the prosecution thereof. $18. be prosecuted in the name of the Territory of Dakota, and the trial thereof be conducted in all respects the same as prosecutions in civil actions, except that the verdict of the jury shall be "guilty" or "not guilty," and except further that several distinct and separate causes of action may be prosecuted in the same action under separate counts and a separate verdict may be required upon each count.

$19. COSTS AND EXPENSES PAID BY TERRITORY.] All costs and expenses connected with the trial of actions prosecuted in the name of the Territory of Dakota under the provisions of this act shall be paid and defrayed by the Territory of Dakota and all fines collected hereunder shall be paid into the treasury of said Territory.

An itemized statement of the cost and expenses of each action shall be made by the said attorney general, and when duly verified by him and approved by the trial judge, shall be presented to the Territorial Auditor, who shall make and deliver to each person entitled thereto a warrant upon the Treasurer of the Territory for the amount due him as per the said statement, which shall be paid as other warrants. § 20. PENALTY ON RAILROAD CORPORATION-SEPARATE OFFENSES.] Any railroad company found guilty of violating any of the provisions of this act shall be fined in a sum not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000, to which shall be added the costs of action, and each day's refusal or neglect of any railroad company, to do or perform any act required by this act to be done, and each day's commission of any act or thing prohibited by this act shall be taken to be a separate offense and such railroad company may be prosecuted and convicted for each day's offense separately, and the conviction thereof shall not be a bar to the prosecution and conviction of the same on any other day.

§ 21. FINE NOT A BAR TO INDIVIDUAL ACTION.] Such conviction or fine, or the payment of any fine shall not operate as or be a bar to the prosecution of such railroad company by any person, com

pany or corporation sustaining damage by reason of the violation of any of the provisions of this act, but in addition thereto any person, company or corporation suffering or sustaining any damage by reason of such violation by any railroad company may maintain an action in his or their own name and behalf against such company and in case of a recovery the court shall assess treble damage against such offending railroad company in favor of the party suffering such damage or injury.

$ 22. SUBJECT TO SUIT IN EQUITY] In addition to the foregoing actions, such railroad companies shall be subject to all actions in equity or chancery now cognizable in the courts of this Territory upon a proper showing.

§ 23. ANNUAL REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS.] The said railroad commissioners shall on or before the first Monday of December, of each year, make a report to the governor of their doings for the preceding year, containing such facts, statements and explanations as will disclose the workings of the system of railroad transportation in this Territory and its relation to the general business and prosperity of the citizens of this Territory, and such suggestions and recommendations in respect thereto as may to them seem appropriate. Said report shall also contain as to every railroad company doing business in this Territory:

1. The amount of its capital stock.

2.

The amount of its preferred, if any, and the amount of its preferment.

3.

The amount of its funded debt and the rate of interest. 4. The amount of its floating debt.

5. The cash and present value of its road and equipment in this territory, including permanent way, buildings and rolling stock, all real estate used exclusively in operating the road, and fixtures and conveniences for transacting its business.

6. The estimated cash value of all property owned by such railroad company in this territory with a schedule of the same, not including lands granted in aid of its construction.

7. The number of acres situated in this Territory originally granted in aid of the construction of its said road by the United States or by this Territory.

8.

9.

Number of acres of said land remaining unsold.

A list of the officers and directors with their respective places of residence.

10.

Such statistics of the road and of the transportation and business for the year within this territory as may in the judgment of the commissioners be necessary and proper for the information of the legislative assembly, or as may be required by the governor; such report shall exhibit and refer to the condition of the railroad company on the first day of July of such year, and the details of its transportation business transacted during the year ending June 30. 11. The average amount or tonnage that can be carried over

each road within the Territory with one engine of given power.

$ 24. RAILROAD CORPORATION'S RETURNS.] To enable such commissioners to make such report the president or managing officer of each railroad company doing business in this Territory shall annually make to the said commissioners on the fifteenth day of the month of September such returns in the form which they may prescribe as will afford the information required for their said official report. Such official returns shall be verified by the oath of the officer making them and any railroad corporation when returns shall not be made as herein prescribed by the fifteenth day of September shall be liable to the penalty prescribed in this act.

$25. MAJORITY VOTE DECIDES.] All questions arising in the action of the said railroad commissioners shall be decided and determined by a majority vote.

$ 26. "RAILROAD COMPANY" DEFINED.] The term "railroad company, ,"contained in this act, shall be deemed and taken to mean all corporations, companies or individuals now owning or operating, or which may hereafter own or operate any railroad in whole or in part in this Territory, and the provisions of this act shall apply to all persons, firms and corporations, and all associations and persons whether incorporated or otherwise that shall do business as common carriers upon any of the lines of railroads in this Territory, except street railways, the same as to "railroad companies," herein before mentioned.

$ 27. OFFICE AT WILL OF COMMISSIONERS.] The said commissioners shall hold their office at such place as they shall determine. They shall each receive a salary of $2,000, to be paid as the salaries of the other Territorial officers are paid and shall be provided, at the expense of the Territory, with necessary office furniture and stationery and they shall have authority to appoint a secretary, who shall receive a salary of $1,500 per annum.

§ 28. EFFECT WHEN.] This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval. Approved, March 8, 1889.

REAL ESTATE.

CHAPTER 111.

§5449

CANCELLATION OF ENCUMBRANCES AND CONVEYANCE

OF TITLE.

AN ACT to Authorize Courts by Their Judgment to Cancel Encumbrances upon and to Establish and Convey the Title to Real Property in Certain Cases.

Be it Enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota :

§ 1. POWER OF COURT.] That in all actions arising under chapter 29, of the code of civil procedure, of this Territory, and in actions brought for the satisfaction of record of mortgages and other liens upon real property, whenever the defendant is not found within the jurisdiction of the court and service of summons therein is made on such defendant by publication, or whenever any defendant in such action refuses or neglects to make a conveyance or cancel an encumbrance pursuant to the judgment of the court, the court shall have power by its judgment to determine and establish the title to the property in question, to annul, cancel and remove any and all conveyances and encumbrances constituting a cloud upon such title and whenever a conveyance of such property is directed to be made by such judgment, and likewise in actions for the specific performance of contracts relating to real property in this territory, whenever the defendant is not found within the jurisdiction of the court and service of summons therein is made on such defendant by publication or whenever any defendant in such action refuses or neglects to convey the property involved in the suit pursuant to the judgment of the court this shall be done in behalf of such defendant by a trustee appointed by the court for that purpose.

§ 2. EFFECT WHEN.]

This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval. Approved, March 7, 1889.