L. 1909, erally are conserved by such conveyance; provided, however, that such an order shall not be made if tending to impair the claim or remedy of any creditor. If a sale or mortgage of any real property of any such religious corporation has been heretofore or shall be hereafter made and a conveyance or mortgage executed and delivered without the authority of a court of competent jurisdiction, obtained as required by law, or not in accordance with its directions, the court may, thereafter, upon the application of the corporation, or of the grantee or mortgagee in any such conveyance or mortgage or of any person claiming through or under any such grantee or mortgagee upon such notice to such corporation, or its successor, and such other person or persons as may be interested in such property, as the court may prescribe, confirm said previously executed conveyance or mortgage, and order and direct the execution and delivery of a confirmatory deed or mortgage, or the recording of such confirmatory order in the office where deeds and mortgages are recorded in the county in which the property is located; and upon compliance with the said order such original conveyance or mortgage shall be as valid and of the same force and effect as if it had been executed and delivered after due proceedings had in accordance with the statute and the direction of the court. But no confirmatory order may be granted unless the consents required in the first part of this section for a Protestant Episcopal, Roman Catholic or an incorporated African Methodist Episcopal Zion church have first been given by the prescribed authority thereof, either upon the original application or upon the application for the confirmatory order. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. CHAPTER 459 AN ACT to amend the religious corporations law, in relation to the powers and duties of trustees of religious corporations. Became a law April 8, 1925, with the approval of the Governor. three-fifths being present. Passed, The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. Section five of chapter fifty-three of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, entitled "An act in relation to religious corporations, constituting chapter fifty-one of the consolidated laws," is hereby amended to read as follows: § 5. General powers and duties of trustees of religious corporations. The trustees of every religious corporation shall have the custody and control of all the temporalities and property, real and personal, belonging to the corporation and of the revenues therefrom, and shall administer the same in accordance with the discipline, rules and usages of the corporation and of the ecclesiastical governing body, if any, to which the corporation is subject, and with the provisions of law relating thereto, for the support and maintenance of the corporation, or, providing the members of the corporation at a meeting thereof shall so authorize, of some religious, charitable, benevolent or educational object conducted by said corporation or in connection with it, or with the denomination, if any, with which it is connected; and they shall not use such property or revenues for any other purpose or divert the same from such uses. "They may transfer all or any part of the real or personal estate of such corporation to such bank or trust company organized or existing under the laws of the state of New York, as may be designated by them or to a holding company, organized under the laws of the state of New York, of the same religious denomination, such property to be held in trust and to be invested and reinvested in such manner as trust funds are allowed to be invested, under the laws of the state existing at the time of such investment and the income thereof paid to the said religious corporation at such times as shall be agreed upon between such religious corporation and such trustee, the said religious corporation may from time to time designate other and different trustees within the limits above prescribed and subject to the same regulations and restrictions. The trustees of an incorporated Roman Catholic Church, or of a Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, shall not transfer any property as herein provided without the consent of the archbishop or bishop of the diocese to which such church belongs or in case of their absence or inability to act, without the consent of the vicar general or administrator of such diocese. By-laws may be adopted or amended, by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters present and voting at the meeting for incorporation or at any subsequent meeting, after written notice, embodying such by-laws or amendment, has been openly given at a previous meeting, and also in the notices of the meeting at which such proposed by-laws or amendment is to be acted upon. By-laws thus adopted or amended shall control the action of the trustees. But this section does not give to the trustees of an incorporated church, any control over the calling, settlement, dismissal or removal of its minister, or the fixing of his salary; or any power to fix or change the times, nature or order of the public or social worship of such church. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. CHAPTER 460 AN ACT to amend the religious corporations law, in relation to qualification of voters. Became a law April 8, 1925, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. Section one hundred and ninety-five of chapter fifty- L. 1909, three of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, entitled "An act 1 Following sentence new. ch. 53, § 195 amended. in relation to religious corporations, constituting chapter fifty-one of the consolidated laws," as last amended by chapter two hundred and ten of the laws of nineteen hundred and sixteen,1 is hereby amended to read as follows: § 195. Organization and conduct of corporate meetings; qualification of voters thereat. At a corporate meeting of an incorporated church to which this article is applicable the following persons, and no others, shall be qualified voters, to wit: All persons of full age, who are then members in good and regular standing of such church by admission into full communion or membership therewith in accordance with the rules and regulations thereof, and of the governing ecclesiastical body, if any, of the denomination or order to which the church belongs, or who have been stated attendants on divine worship in such church and have regularly contributed to the financial support thereof during the year next preceding such meeting; and any incorporated church in connection with the Congregational denomination or with the denomination known as Disciples of Christ, or any other church incorporated under this article, may at any annual corporate meeting thereof, or any corporate meeting called pursuant to the provisions of this article, if notice of the intention so to do has been given with the notice of such meeting, determine that thereafter only members of such church shall be qualified voters at corporate meetings thereof. The presence at such meetings of at least six persons qualified to vote thereat shall be necessary to constitute a quorum. The action of the meeting upon any matter or question shall be decided by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon, a quorum being present. The first named of the following persons who is present at such meeting shall preside thereat, to wit: The minister of such church, the officiating minister thereof; the officers thereof in the order of their age beginning with the oldest, any qualified voters elected therefor at the meeting. The presiding officer of the meeting shall receive the votes, be the judge of qualifications of voters and declare the result of the votes cast on any matter. The polls of an annual corporate meeting shall continue open for one hour, and longer in the discretion of the presiding officer, or if required by a majority of the qualified voters present. At each annual corporate meeting, successors to those trustees whose terms of office then expire, shall be elected from the qualified voters by ballot, for a term of three years thereafter; provided, however, that any Methodist Episcopal church in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in the city of New York, which is now or hereafter may become a beneficiary of the Brooklyn church society of the Methodist Episcopal church, by receiving from said society contributions to its current income, or by loan or gift from the same, may elect to fill any vacancy existing in its board of trustees by expiration of term, or for any other cause, at any corporate meeting legally called, not to exceed at any time three members of said board of trustees, who shall have been nominated to such positions by the Brooklyn church 1 Previously amended by L. 1911, ch. 711. society of the Methodist Episcopal church, without regard to any qualifications for trustees required by this chapter, and such trustees or their successors, nominated and elected in the same manner, shall continue in office so long as said church shall be a beneficiary of said society, and provided, further, that any Methodist Episcopal church desiring to promote a community church service may by resolution determine that not to exceed one-third of its members, whose qualifications for such office shall conform to the rules and regulations adopted by the general conference having jurisdiction over such church, may be elected without regard to any qualifications for trustees required by this chapter. Notice of the expiration of term of said trustees shall be given by the said church to the said society not less than two months before said expiration of term. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. CHAPTER 461 AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to real estate brokers. three-fifths being present. Passed, The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: ch. 52, 8 440a Section 1. Section four hundred and forty-a of chapter fifty- L. 1909, two of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, entitled "An act relating to real property, constituting chapter fifty of the consoli- amended. dated laws, as added by chapter six hundred and seventy-two of the laws of nineteen hundred and twenty-two and amended by chapter five hundred and seventy-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred and twenty-four, is hereby amended to read as follows: § 440-a. License required for real estate brokers and salesmen. On and after the first day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, no person, copartnership or corporation shall engage in or follow the business or occupation of, or hold himself or itself out or act temporarily or otherwise as a real estate broker or real estate salesman in a city, or in a county adjoining a city having a population of one million or more, or in a county having a population between forty-five thousand and forty-eight thousand and between one hundred thirteen thousand and one hundred and fourteen thousand, or in a county having a population between three hundred and fifty thousand and three hundred and sixty thousand, or in a county having a population between one hundred and ten thousand and one hundred and twelve thousand, or in a county having a population between six hundred and thirty-four thousand and six hundred and forty-four thousand, or in a county having a population between one hundred eighty-two thousand 2 Remainder of sentence new. Corporators. Corporate name purpose. to and property. and one hundred eighty-five thousand,1 according to the last federal census or state enumeration, without first procuring a license therefor as provided in this article. No person shall be entitled to a license as a real estate broker under this act, either as an individual or as a member of a copartnership or as an officer of a corporation, unless he is a citizen of the United States or has declared his intention of becoming a citizen, and if such person does not become a citizen of the United States within five years after having so declared his intention, the tax commission may revoke his license. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. CHAPTER 462 AN ACT to incorporate "Sprague Chapel." Became a law April 8, 1925, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. Arthur M. Gundlach, John Tappen, George Smith, and William Rodgers, superintendent, secretary, treasurer, and assistant secretary and treasurer, respectively, and Cora Branion, Laura Conkey, Charles M. Culver, Anna Donahue, Frederick Schrodt, Gertrude E. Smith, Marie Smith, Margaret Townsend, Margaret C. Tucker, and and Helen A. Winnie, teachers of the Sprague Chapel Association, an unincorporated religious association, together with all the members now constituting said Sprague Chapel Association and such persons as they may associate with themselves, and their successors, are hereby constituted a body corporate by the name of "Sprague Chapel," for the purpose of establishing, conducting and maintaining one or more Sunday schools, classes, clubs, schools and places for worship and for the religious education and training of both young and old. Powers as § 2. The corporation hereby formed shall have power to take and hold by bequest, devise, gift, purchase or lease, either absolutely or in trust for any of its purposes, any property, real or personal, without limitation as to amount or value, except such limitation, if any, as the legislature has already or may hereafter specifically impose; to convey such property, and to invest and reinvest any principal and deal with and expend the income and principal of the corporation in such manner as in the judgment of the trustees will best promote its objects. 1 Words "or in a county having a population between three hundred and fifty thousand and three hundred and sixty thousand, or in a county having a population between one hundred and ten thousand and one hundred and twelve thousand, or in a county having a population between six hundred and thirty-four thousand and six hundred and forty-four thousand, or in a county having a population between one hundred eighty-two thousand and one hundred eighty-five thousand," new. |