§11-50-235. Powers of corporation generally; provisions in mortgages, deeds of trust, or pledge agreements executed by corporation as to rights of parties thereto, etc.; exemption from taxation of property and income of corporation.

(a) Each corporation formed under this division shall have the following powers together with all powers incidental thereto or necessary to the discharge thereof in corporate form:

(1) To have succession by its corporate name for the duration of time (which may be in perpetuity) specified in its certificate of incorporation or until dissolved as provided in this division;

(2) To sue and be sued and to defend civil actions against it;

(3) To make use of a corporate seal and to alter the same at pleasure;

(4) To acquire, purchase, construct, operate, maintain, enlarge, extend, and improve any system or systems, the operation of which is provided for in the certificate of incorporation of such corporation (whether or not such system or systems were in existence or whether or not such system or systems were privately owned prior to acquisition by such corporation) and to receive, acquire, take, and hold, whether by purchase, gift, lease, devise, or otherwise, real, personal, and mixed property of any nature whatsoever that its board of directors may deem a necessary or convenient part of such system or systems;

(5) To borrow money and to issue in evidence of the borrowing interest-bearing bonds payable solely from the revenues derived from the operation of either or both of its systems (although the money so borrowed may be used for the benefit of or with respect to only one of its systems);

(6) To pledge for payment of its bonds any revenues from which such bonds are made payable and to mortgage, pledge, or otherwise convey the system or systems the revenues from which are so pledged;

(7) To sell at wholesale all or any part of its water supply to any other corporation organized under the provisions of this division or to any municipality for distribution to the inhabitants thereof and the surrounding territory;

(8) To sell water and to furnish sewer services and other services from any system, the operation of which is provided for in its certificate of incorporation and to establish and collect and alter charges for water, sewer services, and all services of any kind sold or furnished by it; provided, that charges for services from any sewer system shall be established in such manner that there shall be no charge with respect to any portion of such sewer system that may have been paid for wholly or in part by assessments against the property specially benefited thereby, but any person whose property is served in part by a portion of a sewer system so paid for and in part by a portion of a sewer system not so paid for may be charged an appropriate rate for the service rendered such property by a sewer disposal plant, a sewage treatment plant, or any other portion of a sewer system which has not to any extent been paid for by such assessments;

(9) To operate its sewer system and its water system as one consolidated and unified system, keeping the books and records thereof as one unit;

(10) To lease, exchange, sell, convey, and otherwise dispose of its real, personal, and mixed property by any form of legal conveyance or transfer;

(11) To exercise all powers of eminent domain now or hereafter conferred on municipalities in this state;

(12) To appoint and employ such officers and agents, including attorneys, as its business may require; and

(13) To provide for such insurance as its board of directors may deem advisable.

(b) Any mortgage, deed of trust, or pledge agreement made by such corporation may contain such agreements as the board of directors may deem advisable respecting the operation and maintenance of the property and the use of the revenues subject to such mortgage, deed of trust or pledge agreement and respecting the rights or duties of the parties to such instrument or the parties for the benefit of whom such instrument is made; provided, that no such mortgage or deed of trust shall be subject to foreclosure.

(c) The property and income of such corporation shall be exempt from all taxation in the State of Alabama.

(Acts 1936-37, Ex. Sess., No. 228, p. 274; Acts 1939, No. 493, p. 713; Code 1940, T. 37, §398; Acts 1949, No. 686, p. 1057, §3.)