Corporation

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Corporation \Cor`po*ra"tion\ (k[^o]r`p[-o]*r[=a]"sh[u^]n), n.
     [L. corporatio incarnation: cf. F. corporation corporation.]
     A body politic or corporate, formed and authorized by law to
     act as a single person, and endowed by law with the capacity
     of succession; a society having the capacity of transacting
     business as an individual.


     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Corporations are aggregate or sole. {Corporations
           aggregate} consist of two or more persons united in a
           society, which is preserved by a succession of members,
           either forever or till the corporation is dissolved by
           the power that formed it, by the death of all its
           members, by surrender of its charter or franchises, or
           by forfeiture. Such corporations are the mayor and
           aldermen of cities, the head and fellows of a college,
           the dean and chapter of a cathedral church, the
           stockholders of a bank or insurance company, etc. A
           {corporation sole} consists of a single person, who is
           made a body corporate and politic, in order to give him
           some legal capacities, and especially that of
           succession, which as a natural person he can not have.
           Kings, bishops, deans, parsons, and vicars, are in
           England sole corporations. A fee will not pass to a
           corporation sole without the word "successors" in the
           grant. There are instances in the United States of a
           minister of a parish seized of parsonage lands in the
           right of his parish, being a corporation sole, as in
           Massachusetts. Corporations are sometimes classified as
           public and private; public being convertible with
           municipal, and {private corporations} being all
           corporations not municipal.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {Close corporation}. See under {Close}.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  corporation
       n 1: a business firm whose articles of incorporation have been
            approved in some state [syn: {corp}]
       2: slang terms for a paunch [syn: {pot}, {potbelly}, {bay
          window}, {tummy}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  67 Moby Thesaurus words for "corporation":
     Aktiengesellschaft, agency, aktiebolag, atelier, barbershop,
     bay window, beauty parlor, beauty shop, bench, body corporate,
     business, business establishment, butcher shop, cartel,
     chamber of commerce, combine, commercial enterprise, compagnie,
     company, concern, conglomerate, conglomerate corporation,
     consolidating company, consortium, copartnership, corporate body,
     desk, diversified corporation, enterprise, establishment, facility,
     firm, holding company, house, industry, installation, institution,
     joint-stock association, joint-stock company, loft,
     operating company, organization, parlor, partnership, paunch,
     plunderbund, pod, pool, pot, public utility, shop, stock company,
     studio, sweatshop, syndicate, trade association, trust, utility,
     work site, work space, workbench, workhouse, working space,
     workplace, workroom, workshop, worktable
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CORPORATION. An aggregate corporation is an ideal body, created by law, 
  composed of individuals united under a common name, the members of which 
  succeed each other, so that the body continues the same, notwithstanding the 
  changes of the individuals who compose it, and which for certain purposes is 
  considered as a natural person. Browne's Civ. Law, 99; Civ. Code of Lo. art. 
  418; 2 Kent's Com. 215. Mr. Kyd, (Corpor. vol. 1, p. 13,) defines a 
  corporation as follows: "A corporation, or body politic, or body 
  incorporate, is a collection of many; individuals united in one body, under 
  a special denomination, having perpetual succession under an artificial 
  form, and vested by the policy of the law, with a capacity of acting in 
  several respects as an individual, particularly of taking and granting 
  property, contracting obligations, and of suing and being sued; of enjoying 
  privileges and immunities in common, and of exercising a variety of 
  political rights, more or less extensive, according to the design of its 
  institution, or the powers conferred upon it, either at the time of its 
  creation, or at any subsequent period of its existence." In the case of 
  Dartmouth College against Woodward, 4 Wheat. Rep. 626, Chief Justice 
  Marshall describes a corporation to be "an artificial being, invisible, 
  intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law. Being the mere 
  creature of law," continues the judge, "it possesses only those properties 
  which the charter of its creation confers upon it, either expressly or as 
  incidental to  its very existence. These are such as are supposed best 
  calculated to effect the object for which it was created. Among the most 
  important are immortality, and if the expression may be allowed, 
  individuality properties by which a perpetual succession of many persons are 
  considered, as the same, and may act as the single individual, They enable a 
  corporation to manage its own affairs, and to hold property without the 
  perplexing intricacies, the hazardous and endless necessity of perpetual 
  conveyance for the purpose of transmitting it from hand to hand. It is 
  chiefly for the purpose of clothing bodies of men, in succession, with these 
  qualities and capacities, that corporations were invented, and are in use." 
  See 2 Bl. Corn. 37. 
       2. The words corporation and incorporation are frequently confounded, 
  particularly in the old books. The distinction between them is, however, 
  obvious; the one is the institution itself, the other the act by which the 
  institution is created. 
       3. Corporations are divided into public and private. 
       4. Public corporations, which are also called political, and sometimes 
  municipal corporations, are those which have for their object the government 
  of a portion of the state; Civil Code of Lo. art. 420 and although in such 
  case it involves some private interests, yet, as it is endowed with a 
  portion of political power, the term public has been deemed appropriate. 
       5. Another class of public corporations are those which are founded for 
  public, though not for political or municipal purposes, and the, whole 
  interest in which belongs to the government. The Bank of Philadelphia, for 
  example, if the whole stock belonged exclusively to the government, would be 
  a public corporation; but inasmuch as there are other owners of the stock, 
  it is a private corporation. Domat's Civil Law, 452 4 Wheat. R. 668; 9 
  Wheat. R. 907 8 M'Cord's R. 377 1 Hawk's R. 36; 2 Kent's Corn. 222. 
       6. Nations or states, are denominated by publicists, bodies politic, 
  and are said to have their affairs and interests, and to deliberate and 
  resolve, in common. They thus become as moral persons, having an 
  understanding and will peculiar to themselves, and are susceptible of 
  obligations and laws. Vattel, 49. In this extensive sense the United States 
  may be termed a corporation; and so may each state singly. Per Iredell, J. 3 
  Dall. 447. 
       7. Private corporations. In the popular meaning of the term, nearly 
  every corporation is public, inasmuch as they are created for the public 
  benefit; but if the whole interest does not belong to the government, or if 
  the corporation is not created for the administration of political or 
  municipal power, the corporation is private. A bank, for instance, may be 
  created by the government for its own uses; but if the stock is owned by 
  private persons, it is a private corporation, although it is created by the 
  government, and its operations partake of a private nature. 9 Wheat. R. 907. 
  The rule is the same in the case of canal, bridge, turnpike, insurance 
  companies, and the like. Charitable or literary corporations, founded by 
  private benefaction, are in point of law private corporations, though 
  dedicated to public charity, or for the general promotion of learning. Ang. 
  & Ames on Corp. 22. 
       8. Private corporations are divided into ecclesiastical and lay.
       9. Ecclesiastical corporations, in the United States, are commonly 
  called religious corporations they are created to enable religious societies 
  to manage with more facility and advantage, the temporalities belonging to 
  the church or congregation. 
      10. Lay corporations are divided into civil and eleemosynary. Civil 
  corporations are created for an infinite variety of temporal purposes, such 
  as affording facilities for obtaining loans of money; the making of canals, 
  turnpike roads, and the like. And also such as are established for the 
  advancement of learning. 1 Bl. Com. 471. 
      11. Eleemosynary corporations are such as are instituted upon a 
  principle of charity, their object being the perpetual distribution of the 
  bounty of the founder of them, to such persons as he has directed. Of this 
  kind are hospitals for the relief of the impotent, indigent and sick, or 
  deaf and dumb. 1 Kyd on Corp. 26; 4 Conn. R. 272; Angell & A. on Corp. 26. 
      12. Corporations, considered in another point of view, are either sole 
  or aggregate. 
      13. A sole corporation, as its name implies, consists of only one 
  person, to whom and his successors belongs that legal perpetuity, the 
  enjoyment of which is denied to all natural persons. 1 Black Com. 469. Those 
  corporations are not common in the United States. In those states, however, 
  where the religious establishment of the church of England was adopted, when 
  they were colonies, together with the common law on that subject, the 
  minister of the parish was seised of the freehold, as persona ecclesiae, in 
  the same manner as in England; and the right of his successors to the 
  freehold being thus established was not destroyed by the abolition of the 
  regal government, nor can it be divested even by an act of the state 
  legislature. 9 Cranch, 828. 
      14. A sole corporation cannot take personal property in succession; its 
  corporate capacity of taking property is confined altogether to real estate. 
  9 Cranch, 43. 
      15. An aggregate corporation consists of several persons, who are' 
  united in one society, which is continued by a succession of members. Of 
  this kind are the mayor or commonalty of a city; the heads and fellows of a 
  college; the members of trading companies, and the like. 1 Kyd on Corp. 76; 
  2 Kent's Com. 221 Ang. & A. on Corp. 20. See, generally, Bouv. Inst. Index, 
  h.t. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  CORPORATION, n.  An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit
  without individual responsibility.