have been given by advertisement over the signature of the owner thereof in at least four successive issues of a daily or weekly newspaper published in the county where such duplicate is to be issued.

Every receipt, voucher, accepted order, certificate, or evidence of liability, when surrendered, or the petroleum represented thereby delivered, shall be immediately canceled, by stamping or puncturing the same across the face in large and legible letters with the word " canceled," and giving the date of such cancellation, and it shall then be filed and preserved in the principal office of such corporation, association, company, person or persons.

Sec. 3. No corporation, association, company, or the officers or agents thereof, or any person or persons engaged in the transportation or storage of petroleum, crude or refined, shall sell or incumber, ship, transfer, or in any manner remove, or procure or permit to be sold, incumbered, shipped, transferred, or in any manner removed from the tanks or pipes of said corporation, association, company, person or persons engaged in the business aforesaid, any petroleum, crude or refined, without the written order of the owner or owners thereof. Sec. 4.

NOTE. The act has no sec. 4.

Sec. 5. Any corporation, association, company, and the officers, agents, managers and superintendents thereof, and any person or persons that are now or may hereafter be engaged or continue in the business of transporting by pipe lines or storing crude or refined petroleum shall, on or before the tenth day of each month, make or cause to be made and posted in the principal business office where such corporation, company, association, person, or persons is or are or may be engaged in business, in an accessible and convenient place, for the examination thereof by any person desiring such examination, and shall keep so posted continuously until the next succeeding statement is so posted, a statement plainly written or printed, signed by the officer, agent, person, or persons having charge of the pipes and tanks of said corporation, company, association, person or persons, and also by the officer or officers, person, or persons having charge of the books and accounts thereof, which statement shall show in legible and intelligible form the following details of the business:

First. How much petroleum, crude or refined, was in the actual and immediate custody of such corporation, company, association, person or persons at the beginning and close of the previous month, and where the same was located or held, describing in detail the location and designation of each tank or place of deposit, and the name of its owner.

Second. How much petroleum, crude or refined, was received by such corporation, company, association, person or persons during the previous month.

Third. How much petroleum, crude or refined, was delivered by such corporation, company, association, person or persons during the previous month.

Fourth. For how much petroleum, crude or refined, such corporation, company, association, person or persons were liable for the delivery or custody of to other corporations, companies, associations or persons, at the close of such month.

Fifth. How much of such liability was represented by outstanding receipts or certificates, accepted orders or other vouchers, and how much was represented by credit balances.

The statement so required to be made, shall also be sworn to by said officers, agent, person or persons, before some officer authorized by law to administer oaths, which oath shall be in writing and shall assert the familiarity and acquaintance of the deponent with the business and condition of such corpora

tion, company, association, person or persons, and with the facts sworn to and that the statements made in the said report are true.

Sixth. That all the provisions of this act have been faithfully observed and obeyed during the said previous months.

Sec. 6. All amounts in the statements required by this act when the petroleum is handled in bulk shall be given in barrels and hundredths of a barrel, reckoning forty-two gallons to each barrel, and when such petroleum is handled in barrels or packages the number of such barrels or packages shall be given, and such statements shall distinguish between crude and refined petroleum and give the amount of each.

Every corporation, company, association, person, or persons engaged in the business aforesaid shall at all times have in their tanks and pipes an amount of merchantable oil equal to the aggregate of outstanding receipts, accepted orders, certificates, vouchers, acknowledgments, evidences of liability, and credit balances upon the books thereof.

Sec. 7. Any corporation, association, company, or officers or agents thereof, or person or persons, who shall make or cause to be made, sign or cause to be signed, issue or cause to be issued, put in circulation or cause to be put in circulation, any receipt, accepted order, certificate, voucher, or evidence of liability, or shall sell, transfer or alter the same, or cause such sale, transfer, or alteration, contrary to the provisions of this act, or shall do or cause to be done any of the acts prohibited by the second section of this act, or omit to do any of the acts by said section directed, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars, and undergo imprisonment not less than ten days nor exceeding one year. Sec. 8. Any corporation, association, company, or officer or agent thereof, or person or persons, who shall sell, encumber, transfer, or remove, or cause or procure to be sold, transferred or removed, from the tanks or pipes of such corporation, company, association, person or persons, any petroleum, crude or refined, without the written consent of the owner or owners thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine of one thousand dollars, and undergo an imprisonment not less than ninety days and not exceeding two years.

Sec. 9. Any corporation, association, company, person or persons, engaged in the business of transporting by pipe lines or storing petroleum, crude or refined, and each and every officer or agent of such association, corporation, company, person or persons, who shall neglect or refuse to make the report and statement required by the fifth section of this act, within the time and in the manner directed by said section, shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars, and in addition thereto the sum of five hundred dollars for each day after the tenth day of the month that the report or statement required by said section five shall remain unposted as therein directed.

Sec. 10. The holders of any receipts, certificates, accepted orders, or other vouchers or evidences of liability, or the owners of oil in the custody of any such corporation, association, company, person or persons described and referred to in this act, to an amount of not less in the aggregate than ten thousand barrels of petroleum, crude or refined, may at any time present their petition to the court of common pleas of any county wherein such corporation, association, company, person or persons may be engaged in business and have its principal office, or to any judge of said court in vacation, setting forth under oath their ownership as aforesaid and desire for the appointment of examiners for the purposes of this section; and upon such petitioners giving bonds to be approved by the court or by the judge granting the order that they will pay all expenses

and costs that may accrue in the proceedings, the court, or any judge thereof in vacation, shall forthwith appoint such a number of impartial, disinterested and expert persons as may be asked for in said petition as examiners, and shall fix the amount of their compensation; and the court or judge by order shall direct and empower such examiner to immediately inspect and measure all the petroleum, crude or refined, in the custody of any such corporation, company, association, person or persons, named in the said petition, on the day of such inspection, and to examine the books of said corporation, association, company, person or persons relating to the issue and cancellation of receipts, certificates, accepted orders, vouchers or evidences of liability, and to its, his or their open accounts with persons, companies or corporations with whom he, it or they deal in the receipt and delivery of crude or refined petroleum.

Such examiners, when so appointed, shall each immediately be sworn before any authorized officer to perform his duties with fidelity and according to law, which oath shall be reduced to writing, signed and filed with the prothonotary; and they shall then make immediate inspection, examination and measurement, as required by said petition and order and by this act.

And it shall be the duty of each and every such corporation, company, association, person or persons, and its, his and their officers, agents and employees, to give immediately, upon request of any such authorized examiner all information demanded in said petition and required by this act to be reported, and also full access to the offices, tanks, pipes, books and accounts of such corporation, company, association, person or persons.

Upon the completion of such inspection, measurement and examination, it shall be the duty of the examiner or examiners, or in the event of the death, resignation, declination or inability to act of any of them, then the others, or any of them, within ten days after their appointment, to make to the court appointing them a written signed and sworn report of such examination, inspection and measurement, and file the same of record with the prothonotary thereof, which report shall show:

First. How much merchantable and also how much unmerchantable petroleum, crude or refined, they found in the tanks and lines of such corporation, company, association, person or persons, and where the same was located or held by description of tanks;

Second. For the custody or delivery of how much crude or refined petroleum they found such corporation, association, company, person or persons, to be liable at the same date;

Third. How much of such liability was represented by outstanding receipts, accepted orders, certificates, vouchers or evidences of liability, and how much by credit balances.

Sec. 11. Any examiner, so as aforesaid appointed, who shall make any false examination, inspection, measurement or report, or shall make known, directly or indirectly, to any person, any information he may become possessed of in the course of his examination, inspection or measurement, except by means of his report made and filed in accordance with this act, or who shall receive, directly or indirectly, any fee, reward or benefit, or the promise of any fee, reward or benefit, other than that provided by this act, for the performance or nonperformance of any duty or thing contemplated by this act, or connected with his said employment, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine of one thousand dollars and to imprisonment not less than three months or more than two years.

Sec. 12. Any officer, agent, manager, superintendent or employee of any corporation, association or company, or any person or persons, engaged in the

transportation by pipe lines of petroleum, crude or refined, or the storage thereof, who shall refuse or neglect, after demand made, to give to any authorized examiner full and free access to any and all offices, pipes, tanks, accounts, books and vouchers required by him in pursuance of his appointment and this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars and to imprisonment not less than three months or more than one year.

Sec. 13. All fines recovered from any person convicted under this act, and all penalties, shall be paid one-fourth to the informer or person instituting the proceeding and three-fourths to the proper officer for the use of the county wherein such suit is brought or prosecution instituted. The penalties provided for in this act may be recovered in any court of common pleas of any county where legal service of process may be had, by action of debt in the name of the informer for his use and the use of the county in which such suit is brought, but no such action shall be sustained for said penalties unless brought within one year after the incurring thereof.

Sec. 14. This act shall take effect on and after the passage of this act, and all former acts relating to the subject matter hereof are hereby repealed.

WASTE OF OIL PREVENTED-RECEIVER.

LAWS 1883, P. 79.

JUNE 5, 1883.

AN ACT to prevent the waste by the production of petroleum from lands in controversy in any action of ejectment, and to authorize the appointment of a receiver to take charge of producing wells during the pendency of such action. Sec. 1. Be it enacted, etc.:

That whenever petroleum shall be produced from land in controversy in any action of ejectment hereafter commenced, the court in which said action is pending, or a law. judge thereof at chambers, upon the application of the plaintiffs therein, may direct a writ of estrepement to issue against the defendant or defendants, and all parties claiming or acting under them, to prevent the further production of petroleum from the said land.

Sec. 2. Before an order directing the issuing of a writ of estrepement shall be made, under the first section of this act, the plaintiff or plaintiffs, or some one in his or their behalf, shall present, along with the application for said writ, an affidavit setting forth the facts upon which the application is based, and also a bond with sufficient sureties to be approved by said court or judge, conditioned to indemnify the defendant or defendants for all damages that may be sustained by reason of said writ of estrepement.

Sec. 3. Upon the application of any party interested the said writ of estrepement may be dissolved, by the said court or law judge, upon such terms and conditions as may be deemed proper in the discretion of said court or law judge. Sec. 4. In case there shall be, upon the land in controversy, an open well or wells producing petroleum at the time when said writ of estrepement shall be applied, or at any time subsequent thereto, the court, or law judge thereof at chambers, may, unless the defendant or defendants shall give bond with sufficient sureties, and in a sum to the satisfaction of the court or law judge, conditioned to indemnify the plaintiff or plaintiffs in addition to awarding said writ, on the application of any party interested, appoint a proper person to take charge of the said well or wells and of the petroleum produced therefrom pending said action of ejectment, to have like power and authority upon like conditions and accountability as receivers under the equity practice of this Commonwealth.

PETROLEUM CERTIFICATES.

LAWS 1883, P. 127.

JUNE 20, 1883.

AN ACT to make accepted orders and certificates for petroleum negotiable. Sec. 1. Be it enacted, etc.:

That accepted orders and certificates for petroleum, issued by any corporation or partnership association engaged in the business of transporting and storing petroleum in this State, shall be negotiable, and may be transferred by indorsement either in blank or to the order of another, and any person to whom the said accepted orders and certificates shall be so transferred shall be deemed and taken to be the owner of petroleum therein specified.

OIL AND GAS WELLS.

PLUGGING OIL WELLS.

PLUGGING GAS WELLS.

PROTECTION OF WELLS, TANKS, AND PIPES-MALICIOUS INJURY.
EXTENDING PROVISIONS-AMENDMENT.

ACTIONS AGAINST JOINT OWNERS FOR LABOR.

LAWS 1881, P. 110.

COUNTIES AUTHORIZED TO DRILL.

PREVENTION OF FIRES.

PLUGGING OIL WELLS.

JUNE 10, 1881.

AN ACT regulating the mode of plugging abandoned oil wells, and providing a penalty for the violation thereof.

Sec. 1. Be it enacted, etc.:

That whenever any well shall have been put down for the purpose of exploring for and producing oil, upon abandoning or ceasing to operate the same, the owner or operator shall, for the purpose of excluding all fresh water from the oilbearing rock and before drawing the casing, fill up the well with sand or rock sediment to the depth of at least twenty feet above the third sand or oil-bearing rock, and drive a round, seasoned, wooden plug at least two feet in length, equal in diameter to the diameter of the well below the casing, to a point at least five feet below the bottom of the casing, and, immediately after the drawing of the casing, shall drive a round wooden plug into the well at the point just below where the lower end of the casing shall have rested, which plug shall be at least three feet in length, tapering in form and to be of the same diameter at the distance of eighteen inches from the smaller end as the diameter of the well below the point at which it is to be driven; after it has been properly driven shall fill in on top of same with sand or rock sediment to the depth of at least five feet.

Sec. 2. Any person who shall violate the provisions of this act shall be liable to a penalty of two hundred dollars, one half to be for the use of the informer and one half to the use of the school district in which such well may be situated, to be recovered as debts of like amount are by law recoverable.

Sec. 3. Whenever any owner or operator shall neglect or refuse to comply with the provisions of this section one of this act, the owner of, or operator upon any land adjoining that upon which such abandoned well may be, may enter, take possession of said abandoned well and plug the same as provided by this act, at the expense of the owner or operator whose duty it may be to plug the same. Sec. 4. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.