Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/804

 <»a FEDERAL REPORTER. �companies as distinct from the individuals composing tbem. The right of such companies to sue, and of others, including their own shareholders, to sue them, could not be acquired by agreement between the associates. In England, by an aet of parliament, a public officer is designated to represent the individuals composing joint-stock companies in the courts, both as plaintiff and defendant, and a judgment taken against him, in his representative capacity, binds only the property of the Company. In New York, where the same necessity was felt for a representative of joint-stock companies in liti- gation both by and with them, the legislature provided that suits might be brought by and against such companies in tho name of the president or treaaurer. Aside from considera- tions of convenience, it would be a practical deniai of justice to hold that such organizations, representing as they do large interests, with numerous and ever-changing shareholders, can sue and be sued only in the names of ail their associates, as in the case of partnerships. It is only by comity that a cor- poration which has been created by one state is permitted to carry on its business in other states, and there sue in its corporate name; and it is not easy to assign a reason why tho same rule of comity should not apply in favor of joint-stock companies, which in character are not unlike corporations. In 1855 the legislature of Indiana passed an act (1 Davis, 466) relating to express companies. At that time, and evei- since, the express business in this state has been done by for- eign companies organized as this company was. By this act it is declared that ail such companies, (and elearly foreigii companies are contemplated,) before entering upon business in any county in this state, shall file in the clerk's office of that county a statement of their membership, the amount ol capital invested in their business, and an agreement that service of process upon any agent of the company shall b; deemed good service on the company. Here was a recogni tien by the state of the existence of express companies like the American, with ail the privileges which they enjoyed where organized, one of which was the right to sue in a rep- resentative or common name. ��� �