Corporation

A franchise possessed by one or more individuals, who subsist as a body politic, under a special denomination, and are vested by the policy of the law with the capacity of perpetual succession, and of acting in several respects, however numerous the association may be, as a single individual, 2 Kent, Comm. 267. An artificial person or being, endowed by law with the capacity of perpetual succession; consisting either of a single individnal, (termed a “corporation sole,” ) or of a collection of several individuals, (which is termed a “corporation aggregate.”) 3 Steph. Comm, 166; 1B).

Comm. 467, 469.

A corporation is an intellectual body, cre ated by law, composed of individuals united under a common name, the members of which sueceed each other, so that the body continues always the same, notwithstanding the change of the individuais who compose it, and which, for certain purposes, is considered a natural person. Civil Code La. art.

427.

A sorporation is an artificial person created by law for specific purposes, the limit of whose existence, powers, and liabilities is fixed by the act of incorporation, usually called its “charter.”

Code Ga. 1882, § 1670, Classification.

According to the accepted classification of corporations, they are first divided into public and private. A public corporation is one having for its object the administration of a portion of the powers of government delegated to it for that purpose; such are municipal corpora: tions, All others are private.

Code Ga. 1882, § 1672.

Corporations are either public or private. Publie corporations are formed or organized for the government of a portion of the state; all other corporations are private.

Civil Code Cal. § 284.

Public corporations are generally esteemed such as exist for political purposes only, such as towns, cities, parishes, and counties; and in many reporations are such only as are founded by the government for public purposes, where the whole interests belong also to the government. If, therefore, the foundation be private, though under the charter of the government, the corporation is private, however oxtensive the uses may be to which it is devoled, either by the bounty of the founder or the nature and objects of the institution. The uses may, in a certain sense, be called “publie, ” but the corporations are private, as much 80, indeed, as if the franchises were vested in a single person.

4 Wheat. 515, 562; 1 Wali. Jr. 275.

All private corporations are divided into ecclesiastical and lay; the former are such as are composed of religious persons organized for spiriftial purposes, or for administering property held for religious uses; the latter are such as exist for secular or business purposes. Lay corporations are classified as eleemosynary or civil; the former are such as are created for the distribution of charities or for purposes falling under the head of “chavitable” in its widest sense, e. g., hospitals, asylums, colleges; the latter are organized for the facilitating of business transactions and the profit of the members. Corporations are also classed as aggregate or sole; as to this division, see CORPORATION AGGREGATE; CORPORATION SOLE.