An authorized meeting may be adjourned from time to time without giving further notice, for it is only a continuation of the original meeting. Says an eminent judge: whether a meeting is continued without interruption for many days, or is adjourned from day to day, or from time to time, many days intervening, it is evident that it must be considered the same meeting.
A meeting may be legally held though one of its members is incapable, physically or mentally, from receiving notice. "The law cannot look into the capacity of the stockholders to transact business, but can only regard the capacity of the aggregate body when duly assembled." On the death of a stockholder, the purchaser, if the stock has been sold, should have it transferred, or give distinct notice to the company how notices of its meetings should be sent to him; if neglecting to do this, he cannot charge the corporation with neglect should it continue to send notices to the former address.
Two other points may be mentioned concerning notices. One is, they may be waived and this is often done. Many a question though arises, what action amounts to a waiver of notice. If each shareholder attends in person or by proxy and participates in the meeting, he cannot afterward question its legality because he received no notice of it. An improper notice may also be cured by ratification. Thus if a secretary calls a meeting instead of the directors, and his action is properly ratified by them, the call is effective. More generally, the action of a meeting will be declared valid where it appears that every stockholder who did not participate in the meeting ratified its action afterwards. An election of trustees of a church may be valid even though the notice lacked the proper length of time and the names of the trustees whose seats became vacant at the election, if it was fairly conducted and all who had the right to vote were present. Likewise a stockholder who knows of the sale of his railroad, though not legally notified of the meeting which authorized its sale, and was not present, may be bound by its action through acquiescence. And a stockholder who, after receiving notice of a meeting called by the directors to consider their neglect of duty and who decides not to go, is not thereby prevented from taking action against them by the stockholders who did attend and authorized their unauthorized action. Lastly a stockholder who was present cannot complain that notice was not given to others; the objection is personal.