Page:St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Berry (41 Ark. 509).pdf/10

518 The rule of strict construction, universally applied to exemptions from taxation, demands that this provision shall be limited in its operation to the powers granted to the corporation. It cannot be supposed that the Legislature intended any laxity of construction in a manner so vital to the public interest as that of taxation.

But, by its charter, a limited and conditional exemption from taxation was granted to the Cairo and Fulton Company. It only remains to consider whether the plaintiff is the same corporation to which the grant was made, or has succeeded to its rights in this respect.

Obviously, the plaintiff is not the old Cairo and Fulton Company, nor does it claim to be. The complaint shows a consolidation with a Missouri corporation. And in the absence of a contrary intention, clearly expressed in the law authorizing it, the legal effect of a consolidation is to extinguish the constituent companies and to create a new corporation, with property, liabilities and stockholders derived from those then passing out of existence. McMahan v. Morrison, 16 Ind., 172; Lawman v. Lebanon Railroad Co., 30 Pa. St., 42; Clearwater v. Meredith, 1 Wall., 25; State v. Sherman, 22 Ohio St., 411; Shields v. State, 26 id., 86: Same case on error, 95 U.S., 319; Central Railroad Co., v. Georgia, 92 Id., 665; Railroad Co. v. Maine, 96 Id., 499; Railroad Co. v. Georgia, 98 Id., 359.

But the claim is is that the Cairo and Fulton Company, pursuant to authority contained in its charter, united itself with the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Company, and that the resultant company, the present plaintiff, is entitled to all file rights, privileges and immunities of the original companies, including the exemption from taxation granted by the Cairo and Fulton charter. This consolidation was effected on the thirtieth of April, 1874, and after the completion of the road which the old company was incorporated to build. Upon a fair