Mattu University

Department Of Accounting And Finance

 2023

Law of Person
 Person/Personality
 Types of personality
 Attributes of each types of personality
 Capacity
 Grounds of Incapacity
 End of personality
Chapter Two: personality
Q. Can we use the term person interchangeably with human
being?
Legally speaking, human beings are not the only subjects of laws since
there are other categories of entities that are considered as persons.
 Person in law is different from its conventional meaning
 A person is a human being or it also refers to an entity (a corporation)
that is recognized by law as having the rights and duties of a human
being.
 a person is a being or an entity that possesses rights and duties or is a
subject of rights and duties before the eyes of the law.
 Legal personality is the legal status or the legal conception by which
the law regards a human being or an artificial entity as a person.
 Persons are subjects of right and duties and hence;
 Being a person is a prerequisite to perform juridical acts 10/23/2023

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 2.1 Types of Persons/personality
Essentially there are two types of persons:
1. Physical (natural) persons and
2. Juridical (legal) persons.
1. Physical (Natural) Persons
 Physical persons are those beings which derive personality by nature.
 The term physical person basically refers to human beings.
 Every human being is considered as a person before the eyes of the law
without the fulfillment of any other additional subjective requirement
 Physical personality begins at the time of birth and it ends up at the
time of death.
 What is birth?? When does a person is considered as born?
 Birth marks the beginning of physical personality.

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 As a matter of principle a person is considered as born at the time
when he/she is out of the mother’s womb.
Commencement of personality
 The rule of commencement of personality is up on birth whether it is
through natural process or medical operation.
 Thus, the beginnings of natural and legal existence are simultaneous.
 Birth is condition to confer personality under the Ethiopian law, and no
other requirements are attached to it.
 An unborn body (fetus) is not a person in the eyes of the law and can have
no rights.
 But, exceptionally, the granting of personality to a fetus is subject to
compliance with three cumulative requirements.
Exceptional Situation By Which Personality Begins Before Birth:
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i. When it is in the interest of the considered baby to get such

personality

ii. When the baby is born alive

iii. When the baby is viable

 “a child merely conceived is considered as though born where its interest

so requires provided it is born alive and viable”. Article 2 of the civil code
 These conditions are cumulative in the sense that the missing of one
suffices to deny the fetus personality
1. Interest so requires -There needs to be an interest (mostly economic) of
the fetus to be protected.
 The merely conceived baby will be given personality (before birth) only
for the purpose of the particular interest that called for the personality.
 It means a child merely conceived will be considered born if it is
beneficial to the child to get the status of personality.
 So, an unborn child would be recognized as person only to benefit from
the interest at hand, and it has to wait until birth to acquire personality
for all other juridical acts.
 The existence of interest is not the sole requirement to give personality
to an unborn child.

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 Continued
2. Born alive - personality will never be granted if the fetus is
aborted - exclude from the ambit of personality impotent newly born
babies.
In addition to the interest requirement, the child has to be born alive.
i.e. He/she should not born dead.
3. Viability - ability to live or the potential of surviving for 48 hours
after its birth.
 It exclude those incapable of surviving because of some
congenital factors or if the cause of death being an internal or
natural factor or due to internal deficiency.
 However, a child shall be exceptionally deemed to be viable
where it dies in less than 48 hours after its birth and the cause of
 death being an external factor or a factor other than deficiency of
its internal bodily constitution, such as an accident.
What if the child so born alive dies less than 48 hrs, owing to a natural factor?
Does it make any difference if the cause of such death is artificial?
2.2. Attributes of Natural Personality
Q. What are the legal effects (consequences) of personality?
Q. Why is it important to talk about personality?
Personalityis not something without outcome. It hasits
consequences which are commonly referred to as attributes of
personality.
The most Common attributes of personality are
 Name
 Residence
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  Domicile, and
 The ability to hold rights and responsibilities
1. Name (Article 43 CC) -is a way of distinguishing one person from
another. Persons (be it physical or legal) are identified by their
names, as some persons might have a lot of similar features.
2. Residence
Residence is a place where a person normally lives (has a plan to
live) in for at least three months. (art.174ff)
 In general, for a place to be one’s residence, the person has to
regularly reside in that particular place.

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 Hence, if a person happens to be in a particular place for a visit
or another temporary reason, such place will not be taken as the
residence of the person as the element of regularity is missing.
 Every person needs to have at least one residence. B/c residence
is a mechanism of identifying the where about of a person.
A person can have more than one residence if the person frequently
goes and stays in different places on a regular basis.
 If a person has no regular place to live in, “the place where a
person is shall be deemed to be his residence, unless it is proved
that such a person has his residence in another place”.
3. Domicile
 Domicile is the place where a person has established the principal seat of his
business and of his interests with the intention of living there permanently.
(art.183ff)
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 Elements in determining domicile of a person are:
1. The person must have a principal business in that place.
It means the person must get his/her means of life (income) from that place.
2. The person must have a personal interest in that place
 It means the person needs to have some family or social life in that place
3. An intention (plan) of making a permanent living in that place.
 It is to mean that, unlike that of residence, the living in that place has to be
without intention of leaving soon.
 Permanence is must because a person can only have one domicile.
 Every domicile is a residence and every residence cannot be a domicile.

4. Capacity
Capacity is a natural consequence of being recognized as a person before the
law and it refers to the authority to enjoy and exercise rights and duties by
oneself
Capacity and Incapacity of Physical Persons
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  Capacity is a natural consequence of being recognized as a person
before the law.
 It refers to the authority to enjoy and exercise rights and duties
by oneself.
 Capacity is the rule. It is presumed(rebuttable) always.
 Holding and benefiting from the rights and exercising duties
personally.
 Incapacity refers to inability of enjoying the rights or failure to
exercise the duties imposed on one self personally.
 It is exceptional situation to be proved by the party alleging it.
Grounds of Incapacity
Causes of incapacity can be age, law or
court.
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1. Minority:- it is Incapacity due to age.
 The law considers everyone under 18 years of age as a minor, hence incapable.
Why?
 To protect minors from exploitation by others b/c the law intends that these
persons have immature intellectual faculty and lack the proper degree of
appreciation.
 So how can minors take part in civil acts? Minors can act through representation
of:
1. Guardians: for their personal interests i.e. food, clothing, shelter, and
schooling, and generally refer to the proper physical and psychological well
being and growth of the minor
2. Tutor: for the protection and management of the minor's economic (pecuniary)
interests such as securing income, investing same, running business,
administering property.
A minor can enjoy capacity in two ways
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 1. on the attainment of the Age of 18
2. Emancipation: exceptionally even when she/he is below 18.
2. Judicial Interdiction
 It is making a person incapable by court decision because of mental problem
that may arise from insanity, infirmity, senility and etc.
 Again, it is also to protect interest of the Incapacitated person.
So what is the solution?
 To represent them by tutor and or guardian.
 Tutorship or guardianship is non remunerative and can be acted by a single and
capable person.
3. Legal Interdiction
 It is imposed by the law. It is due conviction for crime.
 No guardian is needed. But tutor.
4. Foreign Nationality
 It is a special incapacity.
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 It is only on some areas. It is because of nationality.
 Their incapacity is absolute in that they cannot be represented by tutor or
guardian.

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2. Juridical (Artificial) Person
 are entities such as corporations or associations created by law and
given certain legal rights and duties of a human being.
 An artificial person is a being, real or imaginary that for the purpose
of legal reasoning is treated more or less as a human being.
 They are represented by physical persons to do their activities.
 Legal personality is not conferred up on them naturally. Hence, their
existence is fictitious.
 Legal persons are the subject of rights and duties from their
formation (registration and publication) to their dissolution (winding
up)
 Business Organizations, once they have got a legal personality they
can enter in to juridical acts such as: contract of sale, employment,
loan, rent or other forms of contract with the name of the business
entity as one party.
Commencement and termination of Artificial personality
 Commenced with Specific legislation, effecting registration and
requirements of publicity.
 Acquisition of personality by business organizations is realized by meeting
the requirements of both registration and publicity, and only as a
consequence of such they can validly undertake acts of civil life.
 Artificial personality in the same way it commences.
 So, it ends through the enactment of dissolving law, the striking out of
name of the entity from the public registry.
 To terminate the legal personality of a public enterprise, regulations
would be issued and these would serve the purpose of ending the legal
life of the enterprise.
 Ordinary business organizations would cease to have legal life when they
are canceled from the registry and/or through the revocation of the
license issued to them as evidence of personality
 It also ceases when the object for which the entity is established
becomes impossible to achieve or where that organization
business law is
10/23/2023

dissolved because of bankruptcy.

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Attributes of legal personality

 Q. What are the legal effects (consequences) of personality?
 Being recognized as a person by the law makes the person possess
certain attributes. The most noticeable of these attributes are :
 Having a name - It may be very simple to coin a name and call a
certain being by that.
 But names do really affect the legal position of a person because
they are mechanisms of identifying the civil identity of a specific
person in the society and of legally conferring/imposing upon it
powers and disabilities.
 Furthermore, since use of a name can modify the legal status of a
person, the law provides for protective mechanisms against abuse
and usurpation of the name by others.
 Using well known names of persons or trade names by companies in
the way causing material and moral damages
 Both physical and legal persons will get name at the early stage of
their birth/formation.
business law 10/23/2023 16
 Continued
 To sue and be sued (in one's name):- To sue is to bring a legal
action against another, and, conversely, to be sued is to face a
legal action brought against oneself by another.
 Because they involve alteration of one's legal position and
determination of liability, suits should be brought by and against
the concerned person in its own name.
 Entering into contractual relations: - Since a legal person is an
entity that can be a party to legal transactions, it can enter into
various contracts in its own name.
 A company can conclude a contract with another company or with a
human being, and the rights acquired as well as the liabilities
 incurred because of the contract belong to the company itself, and
not to the owners.
 Ownership and administration of property: - A legal person can
exercise all property rights to the exclusion of others and enjoys
ownership and administration right over all chattels belonging to it.
Continued
 Obligation to pay taxes: - A legal person is liable to pay taxes
on taxable benefits and gains.
 Since it is authorized to own and administer property and
since it can carry on business, a legal person pays taxes on its
property and income in the same way human beings do.
 Limited liability:- The fact that the property of the legal
person is distinct from that of its owners means that the legal
 person is liable to the extent of its property only. The liability
does not extend to the property/patrimony of the owners
End of Personality
 Art 1 of the Civil Code states that “human person is the subject of
rights from birth to death”, meaning personality begins at birth
and ends at death.
 Death can be natural or legal.
 It is legal when absence of a physical person is declared or
dissolution of a legal person is made.
 Declaration of Absence will be made if a person's whereabouts are
not known for two year and it will have effect of death for all legal
purposes.
Effects of End of Personality
Once personality comes to end either by natural or legal death, it
will have the following legal effects:
1. Opening of succession of the person;
2. Cease to hold right /obligations
3. Remarriage of her/his spouse;
4. Dissolution of the company; and etc. 19