The Short Title of this Act is “The Religious, Charitable, and Educational Trust Boards Incorporation Act, 1884.”

In this Act the word “Board” means any body incorporated under this Act.

The Trustees of any trust for religious, charitable, educational, or scientific purposes acting with the authority of the body for which they act, and any society for religious, charitable, educational, or scientific purposes may file in the office of any Registrar of the Supreme Court a memorial in the form set forth in the First Schedule to this Act; and thereupon the said Society or Trustees and their successors in office shall be deemed to be incorporated under the name set forth in the said memorial.

A certificate in the form in the Second Schedule to this Act, purporting to be signed by a Registrar of the Supreme Court, shall be conclusive evidence in all Courts that the Board therein named has been duly incorporated, and of the time of such incorporation; but no Registrar shall issue a certificate when the name of the proposed Board shall, in his opinion, resemble too closely the name of an existing Board.

Every Board shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, and may hold real and personal property of whatever nature, sue and be sued in all proceedings civil or criminal, and do and suffer all that corporate bodies may do and suffer.

Any notice or legal process shall be deemed to be served upon the Board if left at its registered office; but any Board may from time to time change its registered office by filing in the Supreme Court office in which its memorial is filed a notice under its seal intimating the change and the new address.

All property, whether real or personal, held by any Society, or by the Trustees of any such trust shall, immediately upon their incorporation, be deemed to be vested in the Board upon and subject to the same trusts, powers, contracts, and equities as shall then affect the same.

Where any properties, whether real or personal, are at the time of the coming into operation of this Act vested in or held by, or at any time hereafter shall be vested in or held by, any person or persons in trust for, or for the benefit directly or indirectly of, any body or corporation, or for the maintenance and support of the officers of any body or corporation, whether such trust or purpose shall or shall not appear upon the face of the conveyances or other instruments under which such property shall be held, it shall be lawful for any such person or persons to convey or transfer the properties so held to the body or corporation in trust for which or for the maintenance of whose officers such properties are held, or to such Trustees or Trustee as the body or corporation shall direct or appoint.

Deeds may be made by any Board under its common seal, attested by the Trustees or any three of the Trustees for the time being constituting any Board, and all other contracts may be made in writing, signed by any person in the name and on behalf of the Board acting under a resolution in writing passed at a meeting of the Trustees.

All acts or deeds done or made by any person acting bonâ fide as such Trustee shall be valid notwithstanding any defect that may afterwards be found in his appointment, and the signature of any person purporting to act as such Trustee shall be primâ facie evidence of his being such Trustee.

Every memorandum of appointment of new Trustees that may hereafter be made under “The Religious, Charitable, and Educational Trusts Act, 1856,” shall be filed in the office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of the district in which the same shall be made, and until so filed such appointment shall not have any operative effect.

Any Board (notwithstanding any trusts that may affect its property) may sell, exchange, or dedicate all or any of its property for any public purpose upon such terms as it may deem expedient, and any money or lands that may be received in pursuance of any such sale, exchange, or dedication shall be held or invested in lands or on mortgage on the same trusts as may affect the lands so dealt with.