National Lead Co. v. Dickinson
National Lead Co. v. Dickinson
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The relator asks for a writ of mandamus upon the secretary of state, requiring him to file a certificate changing the period of existence of the relator from fifty years to perpetual upon paying a fee of $20.
The relator filed its original certificate of organization December 8th, 1891, and that certificate contained this clause: “The period at which the company shall commence is the
This refusal was based on the ground that the certificate was one extending the corporate existence of the company and therefore it was required that a fee be paid of $6,000, being 20 cents for each $1,000 of its capital stock of $30,000,000. Section 27 of the Corporation act of 1896 provides that every corporation organized under it may extend its corporate existence by following a certain procedure and filing a certificate thereof in the office of the secretary of state. Section 114 of the same act provides: “On filing any certificate or other paper relative to corporations in the office of the secretary of slate the following fees and taxes shall be paid to the secretary of state for the use of the state * * * extension or renewal of corporate existence of any corporation the same as required for the original certificate of organization by this act.” This clause immediately follows in the same section that fixes the fees for the filing of original certificates of incorporation. The next clause in the same section is: “dissolution of corporation, change of name, change of nature of business, amended certificates of organization (other than those authorizing increase of capital stock), decrease of capital stock, increase or decrease of par value or number of shares, twenty dollars.” Pamph. L. 1896, p. 315.
The claim of the relator is that, as this is an “amended certificate of organization,” the only fee required is $20, but when the act expressly provides that on filing “any certificate or
The application for mandamus is denied.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.