978 ARTICLE 23

ers in such manner as will enable the Commission to ascertain the amount
so expended and the purposes for which such expenditures were made, and
that application for the order of the Commission authorizing such issue
shall be made on or before the first day of April, nineteen hundred and
fifteen; and provided further, that the legal validity and effectiveness of
any order of the Commission made prior to January first, nineteen hun-
dred and fourteen, authorizing and approving an issue of stock for the
capitalization of earnings expended in the acquisition of property, or in the
improvements, maintenance or extension of facilities, shall not be in any-
wise affected, restricted or impaired by anything contained in this Act.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 394. 1912, sec. 449. 1910, ch. 180, see. 35 (p. 381).

405. No gas corporation or electrical corporation shall transfer or lease
its franchise, works or system, or any part of such franchise, works or
system to any other person or corporation or contract for the operation of
its works and system, without the written consent of the commission. The
permission and approval of the commission to the exercise of a franchise
under this sub-title, or to the assignment, transfer or lease of a franchise
under this section shall not be construed to revive or validate any lapsed
or invalid franchise or to enlarge or add to the powers and privileges con-
tained in the grant of any franchise or to waive any forfeiture. No such
corporation shall directly or indirectly acquire the stock or bonds of any
other corporation incorporated for or engaged in, the same or similar
business, or proposing to operate or operating under a franchise from the
same or any other municipality, unless authorized to do so by the commis-
sion. Save where stock shall.be transferred or held for the purpose of
collateral security only with the consent of the commission, no stock cor-
poration of any description, domestic or foreign, other than a gas or elec-
trical corporation, shall purchase or acquire, take or hold, more than ten
per centum of the total capital stock issued by any gas corporation or
electrical corporation organized or existing under and by virtue of the
laws of this State. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent
the holding of stock heretofore lawfully acquired. Every contract, assign-
ment, transfer, agreement for transfer of any stock by or through any
person or corporation to any corporation in violation of any provision of
this sub-title, shall be void and of no effect, and no such transfer or assign-
ment shall be made upon the books of any such gas corporation or electrical
corporation, or shall be recognized as effective for any purpose.

Since sec. 359 provides for appeal to courts to set aside order of Public Service Com-
mission as being unreasonable, the discretion vested in commission by this section is
limited to a reasonable exercise of commission's power in public interest. Acquisition
of stock by an electrical company in another such corporation. If commission's reason
for its finding is insufficient, its order should be reversed. Utilities Co. v. Pub. Serv.
Commn., 154 Md. 447.

This section referred to in construing art. 56, secs. 294-310. Pub. Serv. Commn, v.
Williams, 167 Md. 330.

See secs. 195, 196 and 390.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 395. 1912, sec. 450. 1910, ch. 180, sec. 36 (p. 381).

406. Upon the complaint in writing of the mayor or chief executive
official, or officials, of a municipality or county in which a person or cor-
poration is authorized to manufacture, sell or supply gas or electricity for
heat, light or power, or upon the complaint in writing of not less than one
hundred customers or purchasers of such gas or electricity either as to the
illuminating power, purity, pressure or price of gas or the initial efficiency