Page:St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Berry (41 Ark. 509).pdf/8

516, "an act to revise and amend the revenue laws of Arkansas," required the plaintiff to return a sworn schedule of its property with a view to taxation; and the defendants, a board of railroad commissioners, were proceeding to assess said road, fixtures and appurtenances.

The answer is as follows:

"I. That the consolidation mentioned in the complaint was effected after the completion of said Cairo and Fulton Railroad, and was had in virtue of the forty-third section of an act of the general assembly of the State of Arkansas, entitled 'an act to provide for a general system of railroad incorporation,' approved July 23, 1868.

"II. Said capital stock of said Cairo and Fulton Railroad Company has paid an interest of ten per cent. per annum, and said road has paid a like interest."

The law referred to in the first paragraph of the answer reads as follows:

"Sec. 43. Any railroad company now chartered under existing laws, or which may hereafter become incorporated under this law, shall have power and authority to purchase and hold any connecting railroad and operate the same, or to consolidate their companies and make one company under the name of one or both, or any other name; but when such purchase is made or consolidation is effected, the said company shall have and be entitled to all the benefits, rights, franchises, lands and tenements, and property of every description belonging to said road or roads so sold or consolidated; and shall be liable to all the pains and penalties imposed by their respective charters."

Depositions were taken as to the cost and income of the road, and upon final hearing the chancellor dismissed the bill.

The plaintiff can derive no benefit in this suit from the reference in its charter to the charter of the Mississippi Valley Company. By the thirteenth section above quoted, "all the rights,