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

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]

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. 

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