Person

 The term person ’is derived from Latin word persona, that means a mask worn by
actors playing different roles in a drama.
 In Greek, it was used for a mask; the character behind the mask; character in a play; and a
representative in general. A representative of the church was called a person.
 In Roman law, the term was applied to any human being or to a human being with respect
to the jural relations associated with him.
 A legal person is capable of will.
 A person is not necessarily human being
 Slaves and Criminals are not legal person in the legal sense as they cannot have rights.
 There may be persons who are not human being

DEFINITIONS:

 Salmond - A person is any being whom the law regards as capable of rights and
bound by legal duties.
 Savigny - A person as the subject or bearer of a right.
 Gray - A person is an entity to which rights and duties may be attributed.
 Austin - The term 'person' includes physical or natural person including every
being, which can be deemed human.

Legal Status of Animals

 The only natural persons are human being
 Beast are not persons, either natural or legal But They merely thing.
 Law is made for men and allows no fellowship or bonds of obligation between men and
animals.
 No animal can be the owner of any property, even though the medium of human trustee.
 Animals are incapable of legal rights as of legal duties & their interests are not
recognized by law.
 However, there are 2 cases in which animals may be thought to possess legal rights:
i. Cruelty to animals is a criminal offence
ii. A trust for the benefit of particular classes of animals, as opposed to one for
individual animals, is valid & enforceable as a public & charitable trust, e.g. a
provision for the establishment & maintenance of a home for stray dogs/cats

Legal status of an unborn child

 Unborn person possess legal personality
  There is nothing in law to prevent a man from owning property before he is born
 A child in the uterus is regarded as a person in law in accordance with the maxim:
i. Nascitures Pro Ham Nato Habetur i.e. One who is to be born is deemed to have
been born
 The rights of an unborn person, whether personal or proprietary, are all contingent on his
birth as a living human being.
 Damages can be claimed for injury to the foetus of a woman if the woman was known to
be pregnant.
 A women convicted cannot be executed if she is pregnant.
 No testator can direct his fortune to be accumulated for a hundred years and then
distributed among his descended
 To what extent an unborn person can possess personal and proprietary rights is a
somewhat unsettled question all right of unborn person
 A posthumous child may inherit , but if he dies in the womb or still –born ,his
inheritance fails to take effect and no one can claim through him

Legal Status of a Dead Person

 The personality of human being commences its existence on birth and ceases to exit at
death.
 Dead are no longer persons in the eye of law.
 They have no rights because they have no interest
 Without conferring rights upon the dead, law recognizes and takes account after the death
of a person of his desires and interests when alive.
 Dead persons have no legal personality and hence, cannot sue and be sued.
 Dead men are no longer persons in the eye of law as the legal personality of a person dies
with his person.
 There are three things of a living person which extend even after their death:
i. Body: A living person is interested in the treatment to be given to his own body. A
person is interested in a decent funeral and good burial. (Williams v Williams)
Criminal law secures a decent burial for all dead persons and the violation of a
grave is a criminal offence.
ii. Reputation: The reputation of a dead person receives some degree of protection
from the criminal law. Defamation suit can be filed for loss of reputation of a dead
person.
iii. Property/Estate: A man is dead but he may continue to regulate and determine the
enjoyment of the property he owned while he was alive.

THREE THINGS TO WHICH RIGHTS ARE EXTENDED EVEN AFTER DEATH

1. His body
 2. His reputation
3. His estate
 The reputation of a dead person receives some degree of protection from criminal law.

Kinds of Persons
1. Natural Persons:
 According to Holland, a natural person is a human being who is regarded by the law as
capable of rights and duties.
 Generally, a person/human being is he who has a capacity to sue and be sued is person.
 Is a real, living human being.
 Has the power of speech, thought & choice.
 Unborn, dead & animals are not included.
 Layman does not recognize company, corporation etc as person.
 Have a limited life.
2. Legal Persons:
 A legal person has a real existence but its personality is fictitious.
 A fictitious thing is that which does not exist in fact but which is deemed to exist in the
eye of law.
 Example: Company or corporation
 Real or imaginary whom the law regards as capable of rights or duties.
 Also known as fictitious, artificial or juristic
 In law, unborn, dead & corporations are treated as legal persons.
 The legal person performs its functions through natural persons only.
 Varieties of legal persons; corporations, presidents, societies etc
 Have an unlimited period of life

Corporate Personality
 Legal personality is an artificial creation of law.
 Entities recognized by law are capable of being parties to a legal relationship.
 A natural person is a human being whereas
 Legal persons are artificial persons, such as a corporation, created by law and given
certain legal rights and duties of a human being; a being, real or imaginary, who for the
purpose of legal reasoning is treated more or less as a human being

Theories of Corporate Personality

1. Fiction Theory:
 This theory was put forward by Von Savigny, Salmond, Coke, Blackstone, and
Holland etc.
  This theory says that the personality of a corporation is different from that of its
members.
 Any change in the membership will not affect the existence of the corporation.
2. Realists Theory: A corporation has all the characteristics, which a natural person has.
Therefore, juristic person are real in the same sense in which human beings are.
3. Bracket Theory:
 Also called the Symbolist Theory
 It states that the conception of corporate personality is important and is an economic
device by which we can simplify the task of coordinating legal relations.
 Thus, it emphasizes that the law should look behind the entity to discover the real state of
affairs.
4. Concession Theory:
 It is concerned with the Sovereignty of a State.
 It pre-supposes that the corporation as a legal person has great importance because it
is recognized by the State or the law.
 According to it, a juristic person is merely a concession or creation of the state.
5. Purpose Theory:
 PURPOSE THEORY OR THE THEORY OF Zweck Vermogen
 It declares that only human beings can be a person and have rights as only living
things can be the subject matter of rights and duties.
6. Organism Theory: This theory asserts that corporation is like an organism and it has
(limbs in the form of members), head (top authorities) and other organs.
7. Ownership Theory: This theory states that human beings are subjected to legal rights
not corporations. It says that juristic person or corporation is not a person anyway.
8. Kelsen’s Theory: According to it, there is no difference between the legal personality of
a company and that of an individual.
 In the legal sense personality is only a technical personification of the norms with the
assigned rights and duties.
ADVANTAGES OF INCORPORATION
 Collective ownership and collective action are cumbersome in law
 Common interest vested in them and to have act commonly in the management and
protection of that interest.
 Independent corporate existence
 Successive existence
 Owing ,enjoying and disposing of property
 A freely transferable share