Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ It is too late for the trustees or dissenting bondholders now to object to technical irregularities, if any exist, especially as the Somerset railway has since extended the railroad from North Anson to Bingham, a distance of about sixteen miles, built a branch railroad of one mile in length of great importance to the productiveness of the main line, placed a mortgage upon the road for $225,000 to make these extensions and other improvements, and in other ways materially changed the condition and relations of all parties interested in the road. ”

“ In 1878, seven years after the execution of the mortgage, the provision for the formation of corporations by the holders of bonds was extended so as to include the case of railroad corporations where the principal of the bonds should have remained overdue for the space of three years, and by an act of March 6, 1883, the provision was still further extended so as to apply to the case in which no interest had been paid thereon for more than three years. ”

“ The court further held that under the statutes of Maine the bondholders who had refused to take stock in the new company still retained the same rights under their bonds as the holders of the stock in the new company which had been given in exchange for bonds, and that, if any bondholder declined ultimately to exchange his bonds for stock, he could not be compelled to do so, and that the net earnings of the company, when distributed in the form of dividends or otherwise, must be distributed to its stockholders and to the holders of any unexchanged bonds in equal proportions ”