A Corporation Is A Body But Also An "Individual"

Allen Matkins
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Allen Matkins

Several years ago, I wrote about the various meanings of "person" in the California Corporations Code.  All of the definitions mentioned in that post included corporations within the list of persons.  If a corporation is a person, is it also an individual?

The term individual is derived from the Latin words in and dividuus, meaning not and divided.  Thus, atoms were considered to be indivisible matters ( "Ille atomos quas appellat, id est corpora individua propter soliditatem . . .").∗  I typically think of natural persons when I hear "individual".   However, corporations may have a variety constituent parts, but they are quite literally bodies (corpus is the Latin word for a body).  Thus, it may be no surprise that the California Securities Owners Protection law defines "individual" to include every domestic or foreign private corporation.  Cal. Corp. Code § 27002(a).  The list also includes some incorporeal entities such as unincorporated associations, partnerships, syndicates and even leagues.

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*Marcus Tullius Cicero,  De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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