Page:Henry Osborn Taylor, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations (5th ed, 1905).djvu/34

 § 22c] THE LAW OF PRIVATE CORPORATIONS. [CHAP. II. the discussion of the resemblances between corporations and other legal institutions, contained in chapter IV. In the sec- ond place, this classification will show which classes of corpo- rations form the subject of this treatise. Corporations have served many purposes, and have been re- garded and classified from different points of view. 1 Thus with respect to the number of members, they have been divided into corporations aggregate and corporations sole. A corporation aggregate has many members. It may be an ecclesiastical cor- poration, like the dean and chapter of a cathedral ; it may be a municipal corporation, like a city ; it may be a private corpo- ration, like a manufacturing company. A corporation sole con- sists of a single person and his successors, occupying some par- ticular station or position which the law recognizes and desires to perpetuate. An example is the King of England, or an Eng- lish bishop. In this country, a public official, like the gov- ernor of a state or the President of the United States, might possibly be termed a corporation sole. But the term would be archaic and of questionable propriety. In a few cases a court has seen fit to regard some functionary as a corporation sole. 2 But other terms (e. g. " trustee" ) would be more in accord with common speech to-day ; and for practical purposes corporations sole may be ignored. § 22&. Again, from the point of view of the different purposes subserved, corporations have been divided into ecclesiastical and lay. To the former class would belong a dean and chapter. 3 While a lay corporation might be a public or municipal corpora- tion like a town, an eleemosynary or charitable corporation, like a free hospital or other institution formed to administer a charitable trust ; or finally it might be a railroad or insurance company, a savings bank, a club, or in fact any kind of a cor- poration beyond those previously mentioned. § 22c. Likewise, not only with regard to the different pur- 1 For a legislative classification, see section 2 of the New York Gen- eral Corporation Law (chap. 687, Laws of 1892). 2 Wescott v. Fargo, 61 N. Y. 542; Brunswick v. Dunning, 7 Mass. 445. 8 It may be questionable whether 14 strictly speaking there exist ecclesi- astical corporations in the United States. An incorporated religious society is not an ecclesiastical corpo- ration in New York. Robertson v. Bullions, 11 N. Y. 243.