N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law § 1409: Agricultural and horticultural corporations

§ 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 non-charitable 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) of this section, or has acquired

or does acquire real property by condemnation is or becomes a charitable

corporation under this chapter.

(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) Regulation of shows on exhibition grounds.

Any agricultural or horticultural corporation, or the executive

committee of such board, 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.

(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

or requiring that an approval be obtained from any local government

except an approval required to protect the safety, health and well-being

of persons, 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 and the

provisions of any special or local law or municipal ordinance shall not

be construed or applied to unreasonably prohibit or restrict any

agricultural or horticultural corporation receiving reimbursement

pursuant to article twenty-four of the agriculture and markets law from

the construction, improvement, renovation, relocation or demolition of

all or any of such agricultural or horticultural corporation grounds,

buildings and facilities.