People ex rel. Attorney General v. San Francisco Public Stock Exchange

Appeal from a judgment upon demurrer to the complaint. The complaint alleges the incorporation of defendant, and sets out its articles of incorporation, constitution, and by-laws in full. Its business, as shown by its articles of incorporation, is to buy and sell stocks, bonds, and securities. Except as to one feature, the mode of conducting its business is the same as that of other exchanges with which the public are familiar, so far as appears from its constating instruments, and that is that it permits the use of the phonograph in making orders, offers, and bids. These offers or bids may be spoken into the private phonograph of the person making the bid or offer, or into phonographs kept by the exchange for that purpose in adjacent rooms, and the cylinders containing these bids are placed upon a table in the exchange room, and afterward placed in the “main phonograph” consecutively, in the order in which they are received, and publicly announced; and the bid, offer or order is then placed upon the blackboard. The bid, offer or order must designate the member or broker who is to execute it, and the name of *86 the person making it, unless he directs it to be withheld. The…