US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

 
  § 1409. Agricultural and horticultural corporations.
    (a)  Definition.
    An   agricultural   or  horticultural  corporation  or  society  is  a
  corporation formed under or by a general or special  law  for  promoting
  agriculture, horticulture and the mechanic arts.
    (b)  Type of corporation.
    An  agricultural  or horticultural corporation is a Type A corporation
  under this chapter, except that any such corporation which has  received
  moneys  from  the  state  or  has  acted  as  agent  for the state under
  paragraph (c),  or  has  acquired  or  does  acquire  real  property  by
  condemnation  is or becomes a Type B corporation under this chapter.  If
  such corporation has not already filed as a Type B corporation it shall,
  upon such receipt of moneys or acting as such agent or such  acquisition
  of real property by condemnation, amend its certificate to that effect.
    (c)  Condemnation.
    In  case  any  agricultural  or horticultural corporation or any other
  agricultural society which  has  received  moneys  from  the  state  for
  premiums  paid  for  improving the breed of cattle, sheep and horses, or
  has acted as agent for the state in disbursing moneys for  such  purpose
  can  not  acquire  real  property needed for its corporate purposes upon
  satisfactory terms, it may acquire such real property  by  condemnation.
  Any  real  property acquired by condemnation, or otherwise, shall not be
  subject to condemnation  by  any  other  private  corporation  except  a
  railroad corporation.
    (d)  Report of corporation receiving aid; disposition of property.
    Any   county  agricultural  corporation  receiving  after  May  tenth,
  nineteen hundred and twenty, money from any county  shall,  through  its
  secretary,  make  annually  to  the  board  of  supervisors  a  detailed
  statement with vouchers showing the disbursement during the year of  all
  moneys  so  received.    If  such a corporation shall cease to exist, or
  without satisfactory reason shall fail or neglect  to  hold  its  annual
  exhibitions or fairs for a period of two years, the board of supervisors
  on  notice  to  the  corporation  may  petition the supreme court of the
  judicial district or the  county  court  of  the  county  to  declare  a
  forfeiture  to  the  county  of  the  real  and personal property of the
  corporation in whole or in part or to confer on the county a  lien  upon
  such  property,  whereupon  such court may make a decree determining the
  legal or equitable rights of the county in such property subject to  the
  rights of creditors of the corporation.
    (e)  Restrictions on the formation of corporations.
    There  shall  be  but  one county corporation in a county, and but one
  town corporation in a town, except that  a  second  corporation  may  be
  formed  if  it is to be the surviving corporation under a plan of merger
  with the existing  corporation,  in  which  event,  the  certificate  of
  incorporation  of such second corporation shall have endorsed thereon or
  annexed thereto the approval of a justice of the supreme  court  of  the
  judicial  district  in  which  the  office  of such corporation is to be
  located.  Ten days written notice of the application for such  approval,
  accompanied by a copy of the proposed certificate, shall be given to the
  attorney  general.    Whenever  a new county shall be or shall have been
  erected out  of  a  part  of  an  existing  county  in  which  a  county
  corporation  existed at the time of the erection of such new county, the
  existing corporation may at  its  option  be  continued  as  the  county
  corporation  of  both  counties.    The  determination  of  an  existing
  corporation to be continued as a county corporation  for  both  counties
  shall  be evidenced by a certificate thereof, signed and acknowledged by
  a majority of the directors, and filed in the office of the secretary of
  state and in the office of the clerk of each of such counties.   A  town
  corporation  may  be formed for several towns, but the formation of such
  corporation  shall  not  prevent  the  formation  of  a  separate   town
  corporation for any such town.
    (f)  Annual fairs and premiums.
    Every   agricultural   or   horticultural  corporation,  the  American
  institute in the city of New York, and the New York  state  agricultural
  society,  shall  hold  annual  fairs  and  exhibitions,  and  distribute
  premiums.   Such corporations and societies  shall  regulate  and  award
  premiums  on  such  articles,  productions and improvements as they deem
  best calculated to promote the agricultural, horticultural, mechanic and
  domestic arts of the state, having special reference to the net  profits
  which  accrue or are likely to accrue from the mode of raising crops, or
  stock, or fabricating the articles exhibited, so that the award be  made
  to  the  most  economical or profitable mode of production.  A county or
  town corporation, by a two-thirds vote of the members present and voting
  at a regular meeting or at a  special  meeting,  duly  called  for  that
  purpose,  may  fix the place where the annual fair and exhibition of the
  corporation shall be held.
    (g)  Police and magistrates on exhibition grounds.
    The  board  of  directors  of  any   agricultural   or   horticultural
  corporation,  or  the  executive  committee of such board, may appoint a
  chief of police and as many citizens of this state as may  be  necessary
  to  act as policemen at their exhibitions.  The chief of police may also
  while acting as such appoint such additional policemen as  he  may  deem
  advisable.    Such  chief  of  police and policemen shall preserve order
  within and for a space of two hundred yards from and around the  grounds
  of  the corporation, protect the property within such grounds and space,
  and eject all persons improperly therein, or acting disorderly  therein,
  or  who  neglect  or refuse to pay the entrance fee or observe the rules
  prescribed by the corporation.  Any of such officers may arrest  without
  a  warrant,  any  person  who  he  has  reasonable  cause to believe has
  unlawfully and fraudulently  entered  the  exhibition  grounds  of  such
  corporation  without  paying  the entrance fee therefor.   Such officers
  shall have the same power in serving criminal  process,  making  arrests
  and  preserving the peace within such grounds and space, during the time
  such exhibition continues, and for twenty-four hours thereafter, that  a
  constable has by law.  No town or county shall be liable to pay any such
  policeman  for  services  rendered under this section.  Such corporation
  may regulate or prevent all kinds of theatrical, or circus,  exhibitions
  and   shows,  huckstering  and  traffic  in  fruits,  goods,  wares  and
  merchandise, of whatever description, and shall  prevent  all  kinds  of
  mountebank  exhibitions  or shows for gain on the fair days on such fair
  grounds, and also within a distance of two hundred  yards  of  the  fair
  grounds  of the corporation, if it shall determine that they obstruct or
  interfere with the free and uninterrupted use of the highways around and
  approaching such fair grounds.
    A justice of the peace  of  the  county  in  which  such  grounds  are
  situated, while upon such grounds, may hold a court of special sessions,
  with the same jurisdiction over offenses committed upon such grounds and
  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  boundaries  thereof, as a court of
  special sessions of a town.  The justice of the peace, before the  close
  of  the  fair or exhibition at which the same are received, shall pay to
  such corporation, for its use, all fines and penalties received  by  him
  while  holding  such  court, and shall make to the corporation a written
  report of his proceedings during such fair or exhibition.    The  report
  shall  be  in  all  respects  the same as an annual account rendered for
  services in criminal proceedings by a justice of the peace of a town  to
  the  town  board.    The  justice  shall receive as compensation for his
  services  under  this  section  his  legal  fees  to  be  paid  by   the
  corporation.    The  justice  shall  include in his annual report to the
  board a statement of the offenses  committed  and  the  proceedings  had
  under  this  section,  and  the  disposition  made  by  him of fines and
  penalties collected.  The justice shall enter in  his  regular  criminal
  docket  the full proceedings of all matters coming before him under this
  section,  stating  each  case  separately;  and  the  record   of   such
  proceedings  shall  be  kept  open  for  public inspection upon the fair
  grounds during the fair or exhibition.
    (h)  Capital stock.
    An agricultural or horticultural corporation may  have  capital  stock
  aggregating  not less than five thousand dollars, divided into shares of
  not less than ten dollars each, and may issue such certificates  at  not
  less  than  the  par  value  thereof  to  raise  money for its corporate
  purposes,  if  provision  therefor  is  made  in  its   certificate   of
  incorporation  or  in  a  certificate  filed  pursuant  to  section  803
  (Certificate of amendment; contents).  An agricultural or  horticultural
  corporation,  which  has  issued or shall hereafter issue capital stock,
  entitling  its  shareholders  to  dividends  from  the  profits  of  the
  corporation, shall be subject to the business corporation law and not to
  the provisions of this chapter in conflict therewith.
    (i)  Annual report.
    On  or  before December fifteenth in each year, the directors of every
  agricultural or horticultural corporation shall make a  verified  report
  to  the  commissioner  of agriculture and markets of the transactions of
  the corporation for the preceding twelve months giving full  details  of
  the  receipts  and expenditures thereof, with a list of premiums awarded
  and to whom and for what awarded.
    (j)  Membership in state society.
    The presidents of the county agricultural corporations,  or  delegates
  to  be chosen by such corporations annually, shall be ex officio members
  of the New York state agricultural society.
    (k)  Exhibitions and entertainments on fair grounds to be exempt  from
  license.
    The  provisions  of  any  special or local law or municipal ordinance,
  requiring  the  payment  of   a   license   fee   for   exhibitions   or
  entertainments,  shall not apply to any exhibition or entertainment held
  on the grounds of a town  or  county  corporation  whether  or  not  the
  corporation   derives   a  pecuniary  profit  from  such  exhibition  or
  entertainment by the lease of its grounds for such purpose.