and a notice of said order shall be published in some newspaper of general circulation weekly for three successive weeks, the first insertion to be not less than one month before the day fixed for showing cause as aforesaid.

Sec. 771. REFERENCE TO TAKE TESTIMONY.-Whether answer be made or not, the cause shall be referred to the auditor, who shall take testimony in relation to the allegations of the petition, and report to the court, with all convenient speed, with a statement of the property and effects, debts, credits, and engagements of the corporation and all other matters relative to the issues in said

cause.

Sec. 772. DECREE OF DISSOLUTION.-If it appear to the court that the corporation is insolvent, or that a dissolution thereof will be beneficial to the stockholders and not injurious to the public interests, or that the objects of the corporation have wholly failed or been abandoned or are impracticable, a decree shall be entered dissolving the corporation and appointing one or more receivers of its estate and effects; and the corporation shall thereupon be dissolved and cease to exist.

Sec. 773. RECEIVER. A director, trustee, or other officer of the corporation, or any of its stockholders, may be appointed a receiver, and any receiver so appointed shall give bond in such penalty, and with such surety or sureties, as may be approved by the court, conditioned for the due discharge of his duties as receiver.

Sec. 774. Upon his giving surety as aforesaid the receiver shall be vested with all the estate, real or personal, of the corporation, for the benefit of its creditors and stockholders.

Sec. 775. The said receiver shall proceed to collect and take into his possession all the assets and effects of the corporation, including any sums due and unpaid upon the subscriptions to the capital stock of the corporation, and shall have authority to institute all needful actions for that object. He shall give public notice of his appointment and require all creditors of the corporation to present their claims to him.

Sec. 776. VOID ASSIGNMENTS.-All sales, assignments, transfers, mortgages, and conveyances of any part of the estate, real or personal, of said corporation, including choses in action of every description, made after the filing of the petition for dissolution, in payment of or as security for any existing or prior debt, or for any other consideration, and all judgments confessed by said corporation after that time, shall be void as against the receiver appointed on said petition and as against the creditors of the corporation.

Sec. 777. CONTROVERSIES WITH DEBTORS AND CREDITORS.-The receiver may settle controversies that arise between him and the debtors or creditors of the corporation by arbitration. If there be any open and subsisting engagements or contracts of the corporation in the nature

of insurance, or contingent engagements of any kind, the receiver may, with the consent of the party holding such engagements, cancel and discharge the same by refunding to such party the premium or consideration paid thereon to the corporation, or so much thereof as shall be in the same proportion to the time which remains of any risk assumed by such engagements as the whole premium bears to the whole term of such risk; and upon such amount being paid by the receiver to the person holding such engagement it shall be deemed canceled and discharged as against the receiver.

Sec. 778. DISTRIBUTION.-The receiver may retain out of the money in his hands the amounts necessary for the purpose of canceling and discharging any open and subsisting engagements and of satisfying any demands for which a suit may be pending against the corporation and the costs of the proceeding, and distribute the residue among the creditors of the corporation, giving preference to debts which are liens on the property of the corporation, and shall make dividends from time to time among the creditors until their debts are paid in full.

Sec. 779. DIVIDENDS TO STOCKHOLDERS.-No dividends shall be paid to stockholders until after the final dividend to the creditors, and if, after such final dividend is made, there remain any surplus in the receiver's hands, he shall distribute the same among the stockholders in proportion to the respective amounts paid in by them severally on their shares of stock.

Sec. 780. RECEIVER UNDER COURT'S DIRECTION.-The receiver shall be subject to the direction of the court as to making dividends and rendering his accounts and shall receive such commission as the court shall allow, not exceeding the rate allowed to executors and administrators, and reasonable counsel fees for services rendered to him.

Sec. 781. DISSOLUTION BY STOCKHOLDERS.-When a majority of the directors, trustees, or other officers of a corporation become satisfied that the objects of the corporation can not be accomplished, and no installment of the capital stock has been paid, and no investments have been made and no debts incurred which are unpaid, they may call a meeting of the stockholders, by a notice published in some newspaper of general circulation, and if a majority, in amount, of the stockholders present at such meeting, in person or by proxy, shall decide that the objects of the corporation can not be accomplished, the corporation shall thereupon be dissolved and cease.

Sec. 782. WHO TO BE TRUSTEES FOR CREDITORS AND STOCKHOLDERS. Upon the dissolution of a corporation

the expiration of its charter, or otherwise, unless other persons be appointed by the stockholders, directors, or trustees of the corporation, or by a decree of the supreme court of the District, the directors or trustees acting last before the dissolution, and their survivors, shall be the

Bank v. Construction Co., 17

30 L. R., 289.

trustees for the creditors and stockholders of the dissolved corporation, and shall have full power to settle the affairs of the same, to collect its assets and pay its outstanding debts, and divide among its stockholders the money or other property remaining, in proportion to the stock of each stockholder paid up; and in case of the refusal of said trustees or directors, or a majority of them, to act, the said court may, upon the application of any person interested, appoint trustees in their place.

Sec. 783. ACTIONS NOT TO ABATE.-No action pending in favor of or against any corporation shall be discontinued or abate by the dissolution of the corporation, whether such dissolution occur by the expiration of its charter or otherwise, but all such actions may be prosecuted to final judgment in its corporate name; and on all judgments so obtained, whether before or after its dissolution, execution may be had and satisfaction enforced in such corporate name.

Sec. 784. A corporation may, after its dissolution, prosecute any action in and by its corporate name, for the use of the person or persons entitled to receive the proceeds of such action, upon any cause of action accrued, or which, but for such dissolution, would have accrued in favor of the corporation, in the same manner and with the like effect as if it had not been dissolved.

Sec. 785. SUITS AFTER DISSOLUTION.-Any such dissolved corporation may be sued by its corporate name for or upon any cause of action accrued or which, but for such dissolution, would have accrued against it in the same manner and with the like effect as if it were not dissolved; and process in such action may be served upon any one of the assignees, trustees, or receivers having the management of the assets of the corporation.

Sec. 786. INVOLUNTARY DISSOLUTION AT THE SUIT OF D. C. App., 524; THE UNITED STATES.-Whenever the district attorney of the United States for the District of Columbia shall become satisfied that any corporation organized under the laws of said District has been guilty of such misuse, abuse, or nonuser of its corporate powers and franchises, or such violation of law as would authorize and make proper the forfeiture of its charter, corporate powers, and franchises, the said district attorney shall file in the supreme court of the District a petition in the name of the United States, setting forth, fully and in detail, the alleged abuse, misuse, or nonuser by reason whereof such forfeiture is sought, which petition shall be supported by affidavits of credible persons; and upon the filing of such petition the said court shall lay a rule requiring such defendant corporation to show cause, within such time as the court may deem proper, why a decree should not issue as prayed in said petition, a copy of which rule and petition shall be served on said corporation by a day therein limited.

Sec. 787. ANSWER OF CORPORATION.-The said corpo ration, by the day named in said order, unless further

time be granted by the court, shall file an answer to said petition, fully setting forth all the defenses upon which it intends to rely in resisting the application, which shall be verified by affidavit of some officer of the corporation.

Sec. 788. PLEADING.-The petitioners may thereupon plead to or traverse all or any of the material averments set forth in the answer and the defendant shall join issue with or demur to said plea or traverse within five days thereafter.

Sec. 789. TRIAL.-If issue or issues be joined on such proceedings, the same shall stand for trial at such time as the court shall direct and shall be tried by a jury if either party desire it; otherwise, they shall be heard and determined by the court. If, from the findings of the jury or upon consideration and determination of the case by the court, the court shall be of opinion that legal cause of forfeiture has been shown and the public interests require that said forfeiture shall be declared, a decree of forfeiture shall be entered and the charter of said corporation shall thereby be annulled and vacated and its corporate franchises and powers shall cease and be void; and the court shall thereupon appoint a receiver or receivers of the assets and estate of said corporation, who shall proceed to wind up the affairs of said corporation, for the benefit of its creditors and stockholders, under the direction of the court.

Sec. 790. If any corporation upon which a petition and rule to show cause shall have been served as aforesaid, shall neglect to file an answer thereto at the time appointed by the court, the court shall proceed to hear the application ex parte within five days thereafter, and if it shall be of opinion that good cause of forfeiture is shown it shall proceed to decree as provided in the preceding section.

Sec. 791. JUDGMENT.-If the court, either upon a hearing ex parte or after answer, shall be of opinion that no cause of forfeiture is shown or that the public interests do not demand that such forfeiture be decreed, though legal cause therefor has been shown, it shall dismiss the petition. And if the court shall determine that legal cause of forfeiture has been shown, it may, in its discretion, before passing a final decree of forfeiture, pass orders requiring the said corporation, within a time to be therein fixed, to remedy the grievance complained of, and may suspend the passage of the final decree of forfeiture until the time so fixed, and may afterwards refuse to pass such decree if the grievance shall have been remedied by the time so fixed.

Repealed. (32 Stat., Part I, p. 534.)

[Sec. 792. APPEAL.-From any judgment or determination of the court on petitions filed for forfeiture, as aforesaid, either party may appeal to the court of appeals, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by said court.]

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Sec. 793. INJUNCTION.-The district attorney may file a bill in the name of the United States in said supreme court for the purpose of restraining by injunction any corporation organized under the laws of the District from assuming or exercising any franchise, liberty, or privilege or transacting any business not allowed by its charter or certificate of incorporation or not by law allowed to be assumed or exercised by said corporation, and said district attorney may file a bill to enjoin any foreign corporation from transacting in the District of Columbia any business not allowed by its charter or certificate of incorporation, or from transacting any business in said District when it has not complied with any provision of this code relating to foreign corporations; and in the same manner may file a bill to restrain any individuals from exercising any corporate rights, privileges, or franchises not granted to them by law; and on the filing of any such bill the said supreme court shall have power to issue an injunction as prayed and to exercise all the powers of a court of equity over the subject-matter of such bill. (Supra.)

Sec. 794. INVOLUNTARY DISSOLUTION AT THE SUIT OF CREDITORS.-When any corporation in the District has remained insolvent for a year, or has neglected or refused for that period to pay and discharge its notes or other evidences of debt, or has, for that period, suspended its ordinary and lawful business, a bill may be filed by the district attorney, as aforesaid, for the dissolution of said corporation, or, if he shall decline to do so, on the application of any judgment creditor of said corporation, the said judgment creditor, if an execution upon his judgment shall be returned unsatisfied, in whole or in part, may file such bill.

Sec. 795. Upon prima facie proof of the facts necessary to sustain such suit the court may issue an injunction restraining the corporation, its trustees, directors, and officers from collecting or receiving any debt or demand and from paying out or transferring or delivering to any person any of its property or effects and from exercising any of its corporate rights and franchises during the pendency of the suit, unless by permission of the court. And at any stage of the proceeding the court may appoint a receiver to collect and preserve the property of the corporation and dispose of and manage the same, under the direction of the court, until final decree in the cause.

Sec. 796. PARTIES.-Where the action is brought by a creditor, the stockholders, directors, trustees, or other officers, or any of them who may be made liable by law. for the payment of the complainant's debt, may be made parties defendant by the original or a supplemental bill, and their liability may be declared and enforced by the decree; but nothing herein shall prevent any creditor from enforcing such liability in a separate suit against such parties.