CONSOLIDATION

In the civil law. The union of the usufruct with the estate out of which it issues, in the same person; which happens when the usufructuary acquires the estate, or vice versa. In either case the usufruct is extinct Lec. El. Dr. Rom. 424. In Scotch law. The junction of the property and superiority of an estate, where they have been disjoined. Bell. Consolidation of actions. The act or process of uniting several actions into one trial and judgment, by order of a court, where all the actions are between, the same parties, pending in the same court, and turning upon the same or similar issues; or the court may order that one of the actions be tried, and the others decided without trial according to the judgment in the one selected. Powell v. Gray, 1 Ala. 77; Jackson v. Chamberlin, 5 Cow. (N. Y.) 282; Thompson v. Shepherd, 9 Johns. (N. Y.) 262. Consolidation of benefices. The act or process Of uniting two or more of them into one. Consolidation of corporations. The union or merger into one corporate body of two or more corporations which had been separately created for similar or connected purposes. In England this is termed “amalgamation.” When the rights, franchises, and effects of two or more corporations are, by legal authority and agreement of the parties, combined and united into one whole, and committed to a single corporation, the stockholders of which are composed of those (so far as they choose to become such) of the companies thus agreeing, this is in law, and according to common understanding, a consolidation of such companies, whether such single corporation, called the consolidated company, be a new one then created, or one of the original companies, continuing in existence with only larger rights, capacity, and property. Meyer v. Johnston, 64 Ala. 606; Shadford v. Railway Co., 130 Mich. 300, 89 N. W. 960; Adams v. Railroad Co.. 77 Miss. 194, 24 South. 200, 28 South. 956V 60 L. R. A. 33; Pingree v. Railroad Co., 118 Mich. 314. 76 N. W. 635, 53 L. R. A. 274; People v. Coke Co., 205 111. 482. 68 N. E. 950, 98 Am. St. Rep. 244; Buford v. Packet Co., 3 Mo. App. 171. Consolidation rule. In practice. A rule or order of court requiring a plaintiff who has instituted separate suits upon several claims against the same defendant, to consolidate them in one action, where that can be done consistently with the rules of pleading.