Person

The person consists of bothliryl soul and body; and the phrase, the removal of such person, in a law relating to residence, means, the removal of the sold and body in life, and not the withdrawal of the former from the latter merely. Tute «■ and artificial. Natural persons arc such as the God of nature formed us; artificial are such as are created and devised by human laws, for the purposes of society and government, which are called corporations or bodies politic.

1 Bl. Com. 123.

Person, used in the singular, may well mean one or more, and should be read "person or persons."

People v. Croton Aqueduct Board, 5 Ahb. Pr., 316.

Person may be used as inclusive of states; but as ordinarily employed, and where the context does not indicate an intent to include them, they are not embraced.

The Alabama Certificates, 12 Op. Att. Gen. 176; Taxation of State Railroads, Id. 217.

The provision of the New York statute of wills, authorizing devises to be made to any person capable by law of holding real estate, does not include a state or a nation. The testamentary capacity given by said statute extends only to devises to natural persons and to such corporations as are authorized by the law of the state to take by devise.

Matter of Fox, 52 N. Y. 530; United States v. Fox, 94 U: S. 315.

The state is within the statute relating to frauds on persons.

Martin v. State, 24 Tex. 61.

The United States is a person, within the meaning of the Kansas act, which makes it an offence for any person to cut down, injure, or destroy, or take or remove, any tree, timber, rails, or wood, " standing, being, or growing on the land of any other person," &c.

State V. Herold, 9 Kan. 194.

In support of a general rule that " person " or " persons " may freely be construed to include corporations, wherever the context and general purpose admits, see Beaston v. Farmers' Bank of Delaware, 12 Pet. 102, 134; Mclntire v. Preston, 10 III.

48; St. Michael's Church v. Connolly, Bright. 121; State V. Nashville University, 4 Humph. 157; People v. May, 27 Barb. 238; Gary v. Marston, 56 Id. 27; United States Tel. Co. V. Western Union Tel. Co., Id. 46.

For doubts of or exceptions to such rule, see State v. Cincinnati Fertilizer Co., 24 Ohio St. 611; Coddington v. Havens, 8 N. J. Eq. 590. Even in absence of a statutory definition to that effect, " person " should be construed to include a corporation, unless it appears to have been used in a more limited sense. Re Oregon Bulletin, &o.

Co., 13 Bankr. Reg. 199; Planters', &c. Bank v. Andrews, 8 Port. 404.

The word person, in its legal signification, is a generic term, and includes artificial as well as natural persons.

Douglass V. Pacific Mail Steamship Co., 4 Cal. 304.

Corporations are deemed persons, within a treaty clause against confiscation and prosecutions against any persons. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel o.

Town of New Haven, 8 Wheat. 464. Bank of Washington, 3 Pet. 36; Commercial Bank of Manchester v. Nolan, 8 Miss. 508; Grand Gulf Bank v. Archer, 8 Smed. ^ M. 161.

A corporation is included in the word person, in the civil rights act of congress of April 20, 1871; and the fact that persons hold their rights or property under the name of a corporation does not deprive them of the rights and remedies conferred by law and the constitution.

North-western Fertilizing Co. v. Hyde Park, 3 Biss. 480.

Corporations are persons, within attachment laws.

Planters' & Merchants' Bank V, Andrews, 8 Port. 404; Mineral Point R. R. Co. V. Keep, 22 III. 9.

To the contrary.

Mayor, &c. of Baltimore v. Root, 8 Md.Qb..

The word persons, in tax laws, presumptively includes corporations.

Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co. v. Commonwealth, 1 Bush, 250; Parker Mills v. Commissioners of Taxes, 23 N. Y. 242; British Commercial Life Ins. Co. v. Commissioners of Taxes, 31 N. Y. 82; 18 Abh. Pr. 118; 28 How. Pr. 41; 1 Abb. App. Dec. 199. The act of congress of 1797, ch.

74, § 5, — which requires priority of payment to be made to the United States, when any person indebted to them becomes insolvent, makes an assignment, &c., — should not be construed to include corporations. The provisions of the act, taken together, are so peculiarly applicable to individual debtors, and so inappropriate to corporations, that congress cannot be deemed to have intended to include the latter.

Commonwealth v. Phoenix Bank, 11 Mete. {Mass.) 129.

A statute restraining any person from specified acts applies equally to corporate bodies.

People v. Utica Ins. Co., 15 Johns. 358.

A corporation may give a negotiable promissory note in the course of its legitimate business; since it is included in the word person, used in the statute 3 & 4 Anne. Mott v. Hicks, 1 Cow. 613; State of Indiana v. Woram, 6 Hill, 33. A corporation is a person, within the meaning of the statute of limitations. Olcott ».

Tioga R. R. Co., 20 N. Y. 210; People V. Trinity Church, 22 Id. 44; 30 Barb. 537.

A foreign corporation is a person out of this state, within a proviso of a statute of limitations which excepts cases where, at the time the cause of action accrues against any person, he is out of the state.

Olcott V. Tioga R. R. Co., 20 N. Y. 210; Thompson V. Tioga R. R. Co., 36 Barb. 79.

The phrase living person, in an act allowing examination of parties as witnesses, was held to include corporations, in La Farge v. Exchange Fire Ins. Co., 22 N. 1'.

352; Field