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corporation
A creature of the crown, created by letters-patent. An artificial being, indivisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law. 1 Blackstone, 295. The United States may be deemed a corporation, United States v. Hillegas, 3 Wash. 73 (1811); so may a State, 1 Abb. U.S. 22 and 35 Ga. 315; and so, a county. All corporations were originally modeled upon a state or nation; whence they are still called "bodies politic", McIntosh, Hist. Eng. 31-32. A corporation exists only by force of law, and can have no legal existance beyond the bounds of the sovereignty by which it is created. It dwells in the place of its creation. It is not a "citizen", within the meaning of the Constitution, and cannot maintain a suit in a Federal court against a citizen of a different State from that by which it was created, unless the persons who compose the corporate body are all citizens of that State.
Source : William C. Anderson, A Dictionary of Law (1893)
Language : English