Windfor for disturbing him in holding a leet which he claimed to be entitled to hold, within the town of Windfor, and for other wrongs there done to him: as to all the trespass except the disturbance, the mayor and burgeffes pleaded not guilty, and as to the disturbance they justified -under a grant of Edward the firft; but no objection was taken to the form of the action (a). NOTWITHSTANDING thefe examples, however, it may well be doubted whether, at this day, fuch an action could be maintained against a corporation aggregate; the action fupposes a personal act of which the corporation is incapable in its collective capacity; the act therefore which is the foundation of the action must be done by fome individual in order to affert the right of the corporation, and the action being brought against that individual will answer the purpose of bringing the right to a judicial determination. IT is accordingly decided that a replevin cannot be maintained against a corporation aggregate, because it is founded on a distress, which the corporation cannot take but by its bailiff (b). If a corporation has been used for time immemorial to repair a creek, that creates an obligation to keep it in repair, and an action may be maintained against the corporation for not repairing it, by any one who has fuftained any damage from its not being in a state of repair (c). IT feems likewise, that in such a cafe as this, or where a corporation is bound to keep a bridge or a highway in repair, an indictment will lie against it for not repairing. It is, indeed, reported to have been faid by Lord Chief (a) 18 H. 6, 11. (b) Brownl. 175. Bac. Abr. tit. Corporations, E. z. (c) Vid. the mayor of Lynne v. Turner, Cowp. 86. Juftice Juftice Holt (a), that "a corporation is not indictable, but the particular members of it are;" but I apprehend that this can apply only to the cafe of a crime or misdemeanor, and that an indictment may lie against a corporation, in the cafes mentioned, as well as against a county or a parish (b). SECTION II. Of the Mode preferibed by the Law, in which Corporations must act, and which must be obferved by others in acting against them. THE fubjects which fall under this head are these. I. The law refpecting the name of a corporaton. 2. What acts it must do by deed, and what it may do without deed. 3. Its common feal. When it must act by attorney. 5. What procefs must be used against it; and 6. How it muft plead and be impleaded. 4. 1. Of the Name of a Corporation. may EVERY Corporation must have a name by which it be known and diftinguifhed; by which it must take and (a) 12 Mod. 559. (b) Vid. in Dogherty's Crown Circuit Affiftant, 398, a precedent of an indictment against the mayor and burgeffes of the city of Gloucester for not reparing the Gaol. grant, grant; must fue and be fued, and do all corporate acts; it is, fays Sir Edward Coke, as effential to a corporation, as a name of baptism to a natural perfon (a). BUT when it is faid that a corporation must have a name it must be understood that this name may either be expreffed in the patent of incorporation, or implied in the nature of the thing: as, if the King fhould incorporate the inhabitants of Dale, with power to choose a mayor annually; though no name be expressly given, yet it is a good corporation by the name of Mayor and Commonalty. So, the city of Norwich, by a charter of Henry 4, is authorised to have a mayor and sheriffs, and yet the corporate name is Mayor, Sheriffs, and Commonalty (b). THOUGH the name of a corporation be compared to the christian name of a man, yet that comparison is not in all cafes perfectly correct: a chriftian name confifts, in general, but of a fingle word, as Oliver, Robert; and if there be an alteration in a letter, that may frequently make a material alteration in the name: thus, if a man intending to fue Oliver, name him Olive, the writ must abate, because Olive is the name of a woman, and Oliver that of a man, and the two names of course totally different in sense: but the name of a corporation frequently confifts of a great number of words, and the tranfpofition, interpolation, omiffion, or alteration of fome of them may make no effential difference in their sense (c). IT is not requifite that there should be truth in the name of a corporation, whether it be an hospital, or any other body politic (d). (a) 21 Ed. 4, 56 b. 1 Rol. Rep. 512. io Co. 28, 29. (b) Per Holt. 1 Salk. 191. 3 Salk. 102, (182). (c) Per C. Baron Manwood. 1 Anderf. 207. (d) Vid. 10 Co. 32 juxta finem. It is generally denominated of fome place, and that is in many cafes the principal part of the name by which one corporation can be diftinguished from another (a). It is not neceffary, however, that the place of which it is named should be actually in England, but it must either be actually there, fays Lord Coke, or supposed so to be.-There were numberless inftances of fictitious names, in the times of popish fuperftition: fuch were the hofpital of St. John of Jerufalem in England; the hofpital of St. Lazarus of Jerufalem in England; the master of the Knights Templars of Jerufalem in England; the prior and brothers of St. Mary of Mount Carmel in England (b). Thefe names, however, may be fo refolved as to exclude the neceffity of a fiction, that the places comprehended in them were in England. We have only to suppose that the faint, or the description of men, had their denomination from Jerufalem, and that afterwards a house dedicated to that faint, or belonging to those men, was established in England. Thus, “there is such a description of men as the Knights Templars of Jerufalem,” and "there is a master or a house of that order in England.” IN the name of a corporation is generally inserted the enumeration of the component parts of its government, as mayor, aldermen, and citizens; mayor, aldermen, and commonalty.-But fometimes, inftead of fome of these component parts, a more general designation is used: thus, though the aldermen are a principal part of the government of the city of Bristol, yet by a charter of Charles the second, the corporate name is Mayor, Burgeffes, and Commonalty (c). So, though the component parts of the corporation of the city of London are mayor, alder (a) Vid. 10 Co. 123. (b) Vid. 10 Co. 32 b. (c) Vid. Lutw. 1330. 1 Rol. 512. men. men, and commonalty (a), or citizens, yet the corporate name is Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens (b). A CORPORATION may have one name by which it may take and grant, and another by which it may plead and be impleaded thus, a corporation may purchase and grant by the name of Master, Wardens, and Brothers, and may be empowered to plead and be impleaded by the name of Mafter and Wardens only (c). But in this respect there is a distinction between the cafe of a corporation by prescription, and that of a corporation by charter; the former may have several names to the fame purpose; thus a writ was brought by the master of St. Lazarus of Burton, who faid that he and all his predeceffors, mafters of the hospital aforefaid, had been from time immemorial called and known, and had impleaded and been impleaded, as well by the name of Master of the Hofpital of St. Lazarus of Burton, of the order of St. Lazarus of Jerufalem in England, as by the name of Mafter of Burton of St. Lazarus of Jerufalem in England (d). AND a feire facias will lie in one of the names, on a judgment obtained in a writ by the other. Thus, where a (a) Though the common council be a select body, and the livery another, yet I do not conceive that either of them is a distinct integral part of the corporation. (b) Vid. 1 H. Black. Rep. 207. 4 Term Rep. 130. (d) 9 Ed. 4, 19. Bro. Corpor. 32. But a diftinction is taken be tween the cafe of a corporation plaintiff and a corporation defendant; when the corporation are plaintiffs, it is said, it is not a good replication to say, they are known by one name as well as the other, because they ought to know their proper name; but if the defendants be named by the plaintiff by their known name, that is fufficient. Ed. 4, 6. Bro. Corp. 82; the latter fays, "tamen quæ: whether there be not a diverfity between action real and personal." I can see no, reafon either for the diftinction or the diversity. Q3 I writ |