Statement by Mr. Chief Justice FULLER: This was an action brought in the superior court of Halifax county, N. C., by the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad Company, to restrain the sheriff of that county from collecting certain taxes assessed on so much of a branch road of the plaintiff known as the 'Scotland Neck Branch' as lay therein, and on that part of the plaintiff's road which formerly constituted the Halifax & Weldon Railroad, and the rolling stock used with said roads. The plaintiff was incorporated under an act of the general assembly of North Carolina, approved January 3, 1834, entitled 'An act to incorporate the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad Company.' 2 Rev. St. N. C. 1837, pp. 335, 347. By the first section of this act commissioners were designated 'for the purpose of receiving subscriptions to an amount not exceeding eight hundred thousand dollars, in shares of one hundred dollars each, to constitute a joint capital stock, for the purpose of effecting a communication by a railroad, from some point within the town of Wilmington, or in the immediate neighborhood of the said town, to the city of Raleigh, or in the immediate neighborhood of the said city, the route of which road shall be determined on by the company hereby incorporated.' The first 20 sections of the act relate to the main line thus described.
The nineteenth section is as follows:
'That it shall and may be lawful for the said president and directors to determine from time to time what installments shall be paid on the stock subscribed; to purchase with the funds of the company, and place on the said railroad constructed by them, all machines, wagons, vehicles, carriages, and teams of any description whatsoever, which may be deemed necessary and proper for the purposes of transportation; and all the property purchased by the said president and directors, and that which may be given to the company, and the works constructed under the authority of this act, and all profits accruing on the said works, and the said property shall be vested in the respective shareholders of the company, and their successors and assigns forever, in proportion to their respective shares; and the shares shall be deemed personal property, and the property of said company; and the shares therein shall be exempt from any public charge or tax whatsoever.'
The 21st, 22d, 23d, and 25th sections read thus:
'Sec. 21. That the stockholders, in general meeting, may, if they think fit, resolve to construct a branch or branches to the main road, to be connected with the main road at such point or points as they may determine on, and to lead in such direction, and to such a point or points, as they may think best; and, in order that they may do so, the said stockholders are fully authorized to cause books to be opened for subscriptions to the said lateral road or branch of the main road; and the subscribers for stock shall be subject to all the rules previously made by the company, and become members of the company, with this exception only, viz., that the stock subscribed by them shall be faithfully and honestly applied to the construction of that branch of the road for which they subscribed it; but the subscribers for the main road and the branches shall constitute but one company, and their rights of property and estate shall be in common, and not separate: provided, however, that the whole capital of subscribed stock shall not exceed one million of dollars.
'Sec. 22. That all the powers, rights, and privileges conferred by the preceding sections upon the said company, in respect to the main road, and the lands through which it may pass, are hereby declared to extend in every respect to the said company, and the president and directors thereof, in the laying out, in the construction, and in the use and preservation of said lateral or branch roads.
'Sec. 23. That it shall and may be lawful for the said company to construct a branch to the main road as aforesaid, under the restrictions aforesaid, so soon as the main road has reached the point at which the branch road is intended to be joined with the main road; but they shall not, under any pretense whatever, apply the funds of the company to the construction of a lateral or branch road, until the main road is completed, except they be subscriptions specifically made for the branch or lateral road.' 'Sec. 25. That, where a branch or lateral road to the main road is shorter than twenty miles, no other person or company shall be authorized and empowered to build a railroad from any point near its termination, so as to intersect with this main road, in order to injure this company.'