George Shiras, Jr.

“ Under the foregoing state of facts, it is contended that the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company, as a legal successor to the previous companies, is entitled to fix and regulate its rates for transportation until the profits of the traffic shall enable the president and directors to divide more than 15 per cent. per annum, which has never happened, and that to enforce the rates prescribed by the general law would deprive the said company of its legal rights, and would impair the obligation of the contract alleged to subsist between the state of Virginia and the company. ”

“ We have frequently held that in the absence of express statutory direction, or of an equivalent implication by necessary construction, provisions in restriction of the right of the state to tax the property or to regulate the affairs of its corporations do not pass to new corporations, succeeding by consolidation or by purchase under foreclosure, to the property and ordinary franchises of the first grantee ”