The application shall be subscribed and sworn to by each of the applicants before an officer authorized by the laws of the state to take acknowledgments to deeds. The Secretary of State of Alabama shall examine the application; and, if he finds it to be in substantial compliance with the provisions of this article, he shall receive and file it and record it in an appropriate book of record in his office. The Secretary of State of Alabama shall then make and issue to the applicants a certificate of incorporation, under the Great Seal of the State, reciting the fact of the incorporation of the authority and shall record a counterpart of said certificate of incorporation with the application. There shall be no fees paid to the Secretary of State of Alabama for any work in connection with the incorporation of the authority or in connection with the dissolution of the authority. Upon the issuance of said certificate of incorporation, the authority shall constitute a body corporate having corporate succession under the name proposed in the application.
Ala. Code § 41-10-53 (1975)