Q. 2.Give the characteristic of a Corporation. How does it differ from an aggregate of human beings ? What are the two kinds recognised by English law?
Ans. Corporation is the most important and usual form of a juristic.person. This is the only kind of juristic person recognised by the English Law except the State. A corporation, as said above, is on artificial person capable of legal rights and duties.
Characteristics.—Their characteristics arc legally associated with the existence of a corporation.
In the first place, there must be a group or body of individual human beings associated for certain ends. Secondly, this body or group must have organs through which it acts : and
Thirdly, a corporation has a will which is attributed to it by a legal fiction.
Distinction between corporations and human beings.—A clear-cut distinction is made between the individuals who compose the corpo-ration and the corporation, itself. Corporation is a legal entity created by a legal fiction. There is a clear-cut distinction between the personality of a corporation and the personalities of Its individual members. A corpora-tion can sue and be sued in is own name as distinct in the name of its members or officers.
Kinds of Corporations.—The English Law recognise two kinds of Corporations ;
(1) Corporation Aggregate, and
(2) Corporation Sole.
(1) Corporation Aggregate.—It is an incorporated ‘group’ or `body’ of co-existing persons united for the purpose of advancing cer-tain ends or interest. It lias several members at a time. Corporations ag-gregate are numerous and important. The best examples of corporation aggregate are the incorporated companies or limited liability (consisting of all the share holders who contribute money for furtherance of a com-mon object and limit the liability to the extent of their shares) and a corporation consisting of the inhabitants of the municipal area or town.
(2) Corporation Sole.— It is an incorporated series of successive persons. It is a corporation which has only one member at a time. It is simply a series of natural persons or human being some of whose rights are different and devolve in a different way from those of natural persons in general. A corporation sole is created when a “man has rights and duties by virtue of holding an office or exercising a function and when such rights and duties pass to his successors. But the chief characteris-tic of a corporation sole which distinguishes it from a mere succession of officers or persons exercising the same rights, is that the successive holders of the public office must be incorporated so as to constitute a single, permanent and legal person.
The King never dies and the ‘king is dead’ are based upon king’s position as ‘Corporation Sole.’