Eleemosynary Corporations

Such private corporations as are instituted for purposes of charity, their object being the perpetual distribution of the bounty of the founder of them to such persons as he directed. Of this kind are hospitals for the relief of the impotent, indigent, sick, and deaf or dumb. Angell & A. Corp. § 39; 1 Kyd. Corp. 26; 4 Conn. 272; 3 Bland, Ch. (Md.) 407; 1 Ld. Raym. 5; 2 Term R. 346. The distinction between ecclesiastical and eleemosynary corporations is well illustrated in the Darthmouth College Case, 4 Wheat. (U. S.) 681. See, also, Angell & A. Corp. § 39; 1 Sharswood, Bl. Comm. 471. ELEGANTER (Lat.)

In the civil law. Accurately; with discrimination. 3 Story (U. S.) 611, 636. ELEGIT (Lat. e Kfirere, to choose). A writ of execution directed to the sheriff, commanding him to make delivery of. a moiety of the party's land and all his goods, beasts of the plough only excepted. The sheriff, on receipt of the writ, holds an inquest to ascertain the value of the lands and goods he has seized, and then they are delivered to the plaintiff, who retains them until the whole debt and damages have been paid and satisfied. During that term he is called "tenant by elegit." Co. Litt. 289. See Powell, Mortg. Index; Watson, Sheriffs, 206; 1 C. B. (N. S.) 568. The name was given because the plaintiff has his choice to accept either this writ or a fi. fa. By statute, in England, the sheriff is now to deliver the whole estate instead of the half. See 3 Sharswood, Bl. Comm. 418, note. The writ is still in use in the United States to some extent, and with somewhat different modifications in the various states adopting it. 4 Kent, Comm. 431, 436; 10 Grat. (Va.) 580; 1 Hilliard, 4br. 555, 556.

Such private corporations as are instituted for purthem to such persons as he directed. Of this kind are hospitals for the relief of the impotent, indigent, sick, and deaf or dumb; Ang. & A. Corp. § 39; American Asylum at Hartford v. Bank, 4 Conn. 172, 10 Am. Dec. 112; Mc Kim v. Odom, 3 Bland (Md.) 407; 1 Ld. Raym. 5; 2 Term 346. The nature of eleemosynary corporations is discussed in the Dartmouth College case. They are in no sense ecclesiastical corporations as understood in the classification of Blackstone. Marshall, C. J., said, in distinguishing the college from a public corporation employed for the purposes of government, that it was in fact a private eleemosynary institution endowed with capacity to take property for objects unconnected with government, whose funds were bestowed by individuals on the faith of the charter — none the less so because for public education; Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheat. 518, 630, 4 L. Ed. 629. And in the same case, Story, J., discussed at length the nature of these corporations, defining them as "such as are constituted for the perpetual distribution of the free alms and bounty of the founder in such manner as he has directed"; and then, after pointing out the division of corporations into public and private, he goes on to explain that eleemosynary corporations are private corporations although dedicated to general charity, and that the argument that because the charity is public, the corporation is public, "manifestly confounds the popular with the strictly legal sense of the terms." He also calls attention to the fact that "to all eleemosynary corporations a visitorial power attaches as a necessary incident." See Visitation. In the same opinion it is said that a private eleemosynary corporation, when created by the charter of the crown, is subject to no other control of the crown unless power be reserved for that purpose, and this he characterizes as "one of the most stubborn and well-settled doctrines of the common law"; but nevertheless such corporations, like all others, are subject to the general law of the land. See, also, Society for Propagation of Gospel v. New Haven, 8 Wheat. (U. S.) 464, 5 L. Ed. 662; 1 Bla. Com. 471. "In the English law corporations are divided into ecclesiastical and lay; and lay corportions are again divided into eleemosynary and civil. It is doubtful how far clear conceptions of the law are promoted by keeping in mind these divisions. They seem, for us at least, to have an historical, rather than a practical, value. In a country where the church is totally disassociated from the state, there is little room for a division of corporations into ecclesiastical and lay; and while charitable corporations have many features which distinguish them from other private corporations, as will hereafter appear, it is very seldom that the word 'civil' is used in our American books of reports in order to distinguish corporations other than charitable." ELEGIT (Lat, eligere, to choose). A writ the party's land and all his goods, beasts of the plough only excepted. The sheriff, on the receipt of the writ, holds an inquest to ascertain the value of the lands and goods he has seized, and then they are delivered to the plaintiff, who retains them until the whole debt and damages have been paid and satisfied. During that term he is called tenant by eligit; Co. Litt. 2S9. See Pow. Mort.; Wats. Sheriff 206; 1 C. B. N. S. 568; 3 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 113; 2 Poll. & Maitl. 122. The name was given because the plaintiff has his choice to accept either this writ or a ft. fa. By statute, in England, the sheriff is to deliver the whole estate instead of the half; see 3 Bla. Com. 418; and by act of 1883 it no longer extends to goods. The writ is still in use in the United States, to some extent, and with somewhat different modifications in the various states adopting it; 4 Kent 431, 436; Mc Cance v. Taylor, 10 Gratt (Va.) 5S0; Morris v. Ellis, 3 Ala. 560.

See Corporations.

Defined under Eleemosynary in Black's Law Dictionary.