spector," I advise you that in my opinion it is broad enough To the House Committee on CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AMENDMENT TO CONSTITUTION Where a proposed amendment to the Constitution was duly agreed to by a majority You have submitted to me a proposed resolve (House, No. Amendments. 795) providing for submitting to the people the article of amendment to the Constitution authorizing the use of voting machines at all elections. This article provides that, 1911 March 15. Voting machines or other mechanical devices for voting may be used at all elections under such regulations as may be prescribed by law: provided, however, that the right of secret voting shall be preserved. The proposed amendment was duly agreed to by a majority of the senators and two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives present and voting thereon during the legislative session of 1909, and was referred to the General Court next to be chosen, which in 1910 agreed thereto, as required by Article IX. of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth. No further action was taken by the Legislature of that year, and your present communication requires my opinion upon the question whether or not the present General Court may submit such proposed amendment to the people, as provided in the article of the amendment above cited. Article IX. is in full as follows: If, at any time hereafter, any specific and particular amendment or amendments to the constitution be proposed in the general court, and agreed to by a majority of the senators and two-thirds of the members of the house of representatives present and voting thereon, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on the journals of the two houses, with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the general court then next to be chosen, and shall be published: and if, in the general court next chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of the senators and two-thirds of the members of the house of representatives present and voting thereon, then it shall be the duty of the general court to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people; and if they shall be approved and ratified by a majority of the qualified voters, voting thereon at meetings legally warned and holden for that purpose, they shall become part of the constitution of this commonwealth. The article contains no specific direction as to the precise time when a proposed amendment shall be submitted to the people, and does not expressly limit the authority of the Legislature in this respect to the General Court which agrees to a proposed amendment already passed upon by the General Court of the previous year, and if such limitation exists it exists only by necessary implication. I am aware of no decision of the court upon the point raised by your inquiry, and the question seems to be one of novel impression. In the absence of judicial authority in the premises I am inclined to the opinion that no sufficient reason is apparent for limiting the power of the General Court to submit to the people a proposed amendment of the Constitution to the particular Legislature by which such proposed amendment was agreed to; and if no action with respect to submission was taken by such Legislature, an amendment so adopted may be submitted to the people for their action by a subsequent Legislature, in the form of a resolve passed in the usual manner. To the Bank CO-OPERATIVE BANK-UNINCORPORATED ASSOCIATION-WAY - An unincorporated association formed for the purpose of accumulating a fund for the purchase of real estate and for building thereon, for making loans and for accumulating a fund to be returned to the stockholders, the property of which is vested in trustees and the shares of which mature when they reach the value of $500, with provision for assignment or withdrawal, and which does not offer to its members who are persons having one or more shares of stock who have signed the articles of association - - the money so accumulated according to the premium or rate of interest paid by them for priority, but invests such money as the funds of a savings bank are invested, does not transact "the business of accumulating the savings of its members and loaning to them such accumulation in the manner of a co-operative bank" in violation of the prohibition of R. L., c. 114, § 1. Quare, whether the way or manner in which such association transacts its business might not lead the public to believe that such business was that of a savings bank. You have requested my opinion upon certain questions relative to the Attleborough Savings and Loan Association. The Attleborough Savings and Loan Association is unincorporated. Its purpose, as stated in the preamble to its Articles of Association, is that "of accumulating a fund for the purchase of real estate and for building thereon, for removing incumbrances therefrom, for making loans, and for the further purpose of accumulating a fund to be returned to stockholders." Any person holding one or more shares of the stock and having signed the Articles of Association is a member of the association. Articles of Association, Article 1. The title to the property of the association is vested in trustees, Article 4. Investments may be made in loans "on first mortgages of real estate, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, upon shares of this association, and upon such other securities as savings banks are authorized to take under the laws of Massachusetts," also "in real estate in the town of Attleborough," Article 8. Members pay monthly dues of $2 per share and fines for default of payment, Article 10. Shares mature when they reach the value of $500, Article 13. Provision is made for assignment or withdrawal of shares, Article 9. You further state that "the money accumulated is not offered to the members according to the premiums or rate of interest bid by them for priority, but is invested almost precisely as are the funds of a savings bank." Your first inquiry is as follows: Is this association, on the evidence submitted, transacting the business of accumulating the savings of its members and loaning to them such accumulations in the manner of a co-operative bank, contrary to the provisions of section 1 of chapter 114 of the Revised Laws? R. L., c. 114, § 1, provides, in part, that No person, and no association or corporation, except foreign associations and corporations duly licensed by the board of commissioners of savings banks prior to the fourteenth day of April in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-six to transact business in this commonwealth, shall transact the business of accumulating the savings of its members and loaning to them such accumulations in the manner of a co-operative bank, unless incorporated in this commonwealth for such purpose. I am of opinion that the association in question does not transact "the business of accumulating the savings of its members and loaning to them such accumulations in the manner of a co-operative bank," contrary to the provisions of the statute quoted. It would be difficult to distinguish the manner in which the association in question transacts the business of accumulating the savings of its members from that of a co-operative bank. The association, however, does not loan to them such accumulations in the manner of a co-operative bank. The loaning of such accumulations to such of the members as make the best offers is characteristic of a co-operative bank. See Atwood v. Dumas, 149 Mass. 167, 169; Attorney-General v. Pitcher, 183 Mass. 513, 516. The loaning of money to its members upon their shares is merely incidental in the case of the association in question. There are no provisions that such loans shall be made to those members who offer the greatest premiums or rates of interest, as in the case of a co-operative bank. R. L., c. 114, § 11. Your second inquiry is as follows: Is this association soliciting or receiving deposits or transacting business in the way or manner of a savings bank contrary to the provisions of section 16 of chapter 590 of the Acts of 1908? St. 1908, c. 590, § 16, provides as follows: No corporation, either domestic or foreign, and no person, partnership or association except savings banks and trust companies incorporated under the laws of this commonwealth, or such foreign banking corporations as were doing business in this commonwealth and were subject to examination or supervision of the commissioner on June first, nineteen hundred and six, shall hereafter make use of any sign at the place where its business is transacted having thereon any name, or other word or words indicating that such place or office is the place or office of a savings bank. Nor shall such corporation, person, partnership or association make use of or circulate any written or printed or partly written and partly printed paper whatever, having thereon any name, or other word or words, indicating that such business is the business of a savings bank; nor shall any such corporation, person, partnership or association, or any agent of a foreign corporation not having an established place of business in this commonwealth, solicit or receive deposits or transact business in the way or manner of a savings bank, or in such a way or manner as to lead the public to believe, or as in the opinion of the commissioner might lead the public to believe, that its business is that of a savings bank. Though it is not absolutely clear that its way or manner of transacting business is that of a savings bank, I advise you that you may properly be of the opinion that the way or manner in which it transacts its business might lead the public to believe that its business is that of a savings bank. |