Co-ownership

“ Therefore if, in accordance with the popular theory, we attribute the ownership of lands to ‘communities,’ we ought to add that we do not attribute it to corporations and that we are fully aware that co-ownership can not be sharply contrasted with ownership by individuals. ”

“ Co-ownership and ownership by corporations.
It apparently attributes the ownership of land to communities. It contrasts communities with individuals. In so doing it seems to hint, and yet to be afraid of saying, that land was owned by corporations before it was owned by men. The hesitation we can understand. ”

“ Co-ownership must be distinguished from divisibility, the concept discussed later in this chapter. Divisibility concerns the ownership by different persons of different rights in a work, while co-ownership means that two or more persons together own the same rights. ”

“ If two persons carry on a partnership, or own and manage property in common, complications arise, with which nevertheless the law can deal without calling in the aid of fresh conceptions. But what if there are fifty or a hundred joint owners? With such a state of facts legal principles and conceptions based on the type of individual ownership are scarcely competent to deal. How shall this multitude manage its common interests and affairs? ”

“ Thus a written agreement for the sale of land is in law nothing more than a contract, imposing upon the seller a personal obligation to execute a conveyance under seal, but not in itself amounting to a transfer of the ownership of the land. In equity, on the other hand, such an agreement amounts to an assignment. The equitable ownership of the land passes under it to the purchaser forthwith, and the vendor holds the legal ownership in trust for him. Similarly a contract to grant a legal lease or mortgage or servitude is itself the actual grant of an equitable lease, mortgage, or servitude. ”

“ The nature of a corporation is such, however, that many acts and privileges which are per se rights of the stockholders must in their exercise be delegated to others. Thus, while the right of ownership and control of the profits of a corporation is inherent in its proprietorship, the control is indirect—through the medium of a board of directors subject to periodic review and election by the owners. ”

“ It is more than likely that joint-ownership, and not separate ownership, is the really archaic institution, and that the forms of property which will afford us instruction will be those which are associated with the rights of families and of groups of kindred. ”

“ The property is deemed by the law to be vested, not in its true owners, but in one or more determinate individuals of full capacity, who hold it for safe custody on behalf of those uncertain, incapable, or multitudinous persons to whom it in truth belongs. In this manner the law is enabled to assimilate collective ownership to the simpler form of individual ownership. If the property and rights of a charitable institution or an unincorporated trading association of many members are held in trust by one or two individuals, the difficulties of the problem are greatly reduced. ”

“ In the 229second place, similar protection is required for the property of those who lie under some incapacity in respect of the administration of it, such as infancy, lunacy, or absence. Thirdly, it is expedient that property in which large numbers of persons are interested in common should be vested in trustees. The complexities and difficulties which arise from co-ownership become so great, so soon as the number of co-owners ceases to be small, that it is essential to avoid them ”

“ In all cases, this is done by amending
the company's contract.
Second: In the sole owner enterprise, the owner can transfer ownership to
another person by amending the company's statement. If it is to be
transferred to more than one person, or if only a part of the ownership is
to be transferred, this can be done only by changing the enterprise into
another type of company, such as those stipulated in this law.
Article 70: First: If a partner in a joint liability company dies, the
partnership shall continue through his heirs. ”

“ The first and seventh sections of the charter evidently contemplate the ownership of property by the bank in its corporate capacity. The real estate and the profits of the capital stock, previous to a dividend, may be considered as belonging to the bank. But the capital stock itself is as much the property of a stranger as of the bank. There cannot well be two entire owners to the same property. The stockholders have the property, and the corporation the management of it. The corporation is not even the trustee: for it has not the legal estate, and no power to sell. ”

“ The members of this partnership are in no way uncertain, for no one is a member whose name is not subscribed to the articles of association. It is a large partnership. The accumulation is for the partners, not for an ideal company or mere abstraction. The property loses its individuality as to ownership the instant the owner becomes a member. It stands like the property of any other partnership. The partners are joint owners. No formal transfer of delivery is necessary; the possession by one partner is the possession of all. ”

“ The language is general, so general that it includes everything, not excepting good will, dividend-earning power, and the like, for they are 'capable of private ownership.' They belong to the corporation. There is no good will in a share of stock over and above the good will which belongs to the corporation, and, if the corporation sells and conveys all that it possesses 'capable of private ownership,' it sells and conveys its good will, and there is nothing left of good will or anything else belonging to the stockholders. ”

“ Rep. 303:
'The franchise of being a corporation need not be implied as necessary to secure to the mortgage bondholders or the purchasers at a foreclosure sale, the substantial rights intended to be secured. They acquire the ownership of the railroad and the property incident to it, and the franchise of maintaining and operating it as such; and the corporate existence is not essential to its use and enjoyment. All the franchises necessary or important to the beneficial use of the railroad could as well be exercised by natural persons. ”

“ But the owners of the property are, qua property-owners functionless, not in the sense, of course, that the tools of which they are proprietors are not useful, but in the sense that since work and ownership are increasingly separated, the efficient use of the tools is not dependent on the maintenance of the proprietary rights exercised over them. {98} Of course there are many managing directors who both own capital and administer the business. But it is none the less the case that most shareholders in most large industries are normally shareholders and nothing more. ”

“ In the light of all this we cannot regard the new company as virtually identical with the old, but must treat it as a substantial corporate body with its own separate identity, and its stockholders as having property rights and interests materially different from those incident to ownership of stock in the old company. ”

“ It is enough that the corporation, in complying with the lawful command of the state to part with ownership, is afforded a fair opportunity to realize the value of the land, and that the sale, when required, is to be under conditions reasonably calculated to realize its value at the time of sale. ”

“ Ownership of apartments, residential land plots and land plots used for recreational purposes held in trust shall pass to the entities of municipal autonomy in whose territory they are located. The provisions of the third and fourth sentences of paragraph 2 shall apply to personal users. Ownership of immovable cooperative property held in trust shall pass to the cooperative using it. Ownership of immovable business assets held in trust shall pass to the trustee. It shall be transferred to the using enterprises as soon as they assume the legal form of an independent enterprise. ”

“ Either the owner keeps the profit of the undertaking and bears the loss, or some division of profit and loss between the owner and the manager is the condition of the arrangement between the two parties. Ownership is not abdicated: nor is it easy to see how, without a clear recognition of ownership, any system of delegation could arise. ”

“ A unit owner has the ownership over an exclusive unit of a building, such as a dwelling space or a space used for operating businesses, and has the right to co-own and jointly manage the common space other than the unit. ”

“ A co-operative concern has the power "to regulate and limit the right of stockholders to transfer their stock, and to make by-laws for the management of its affairs, and to provide thereon the term and limitation of stock ownership, and for the distribution of its earnings." ”

“ Each contributor to a common fund becomes interested in the fund in proportion to his contribution. Each owner of property intermingled with other property of the same kind and value, and stored in a common mass, becomes the owner as tenant in common of an interest in the mass proportionate to his contribution. If loss occurs while the common ownership continues, each owner must sustain his proportionate share. ”

“ It is not merely that the ownership of any substantial share in the national wealth is concentrated to-day in the hands of a few hundred thousand families, and that at the end of an age which began with an affirmation of the rights of property, proprietary rights are, in fact, far from being widely distributed. ”

“ When the equity owners are excluded and the old creditors become the stockholders of the new corporation, it conforms to realities to date their equity ownership from the time when they invoked the processes of the law to enforce their rights of full priority. ”

“ Where the ownership of the subsidiaries is complete, the consolidated balance sheet in which are brought together all the various assets and liabilities of the subsidiaries, presents a true, full, and intelligent statement of the financial condition of the holding company. Where, however, ownership is not complete, in which case there may be majority or minority holdings, the problem of drawing up a statement which will present the actual condition of the holding company is more difficult and much more complex. ”

“ For present purposes there remains to be said that even where apparent ownership is retained by the working farmer, effective ownership is determined in other quarters. He is the joint tenant of the farm implement trusts, of the new harvester trust, of the produce trusts which fix the value of his products, of the railroad trusts which fix the rate of transportation to the market, and in the arid West of the water trusts. ”

“ It is apparent that the joint ownership of this property must make it far more valuable than it would be if split up into small pieces held by persons who would become rivals for the profits arising from visitors. ”

“ The ownership may be vested in a single individual person, in the ordinary sense of that word; or it may be vested in two or more individuals forming a corporation or legal person; that is to say, an entity which has all the duties and responsibilities of an individual person, but is composed of two or more individuals. It is obvious that all the arguments which Rousseau uses against individual land-ownership apply to corporate land-ownership. ”

“ First: Founders of joint-stock companies may not transfer ownership of
their shares except in the following situations:
1. The lapse of at least one year since the establishment of the
company.
2. The distribution of dividends that are not less than five percent
of the paid up nominal capital.
Second: Suspended.
Third: The shareholder from the private sector cannot transfer ownership
of his or her shares:
1. ”

“ On the contrary, I believe that the abolition of private ownership of land and capital is a necessary step towards any world in which the nations are to live at peace with one another. ”

“ From the ownership of women the concept of ownership extends itself to include the products of their industry, and so there arises the ownership of things as well as of persons. ”

“ What is characteristic of Socialism is the joint ownership by all the members of the community of the instruments and means of production; which carries with it the consequence that the division of the produce among the body of owners must be a public act, performed according to rules laid down by the community. ”

“ It is a beneficent incident of the ownership of land that a pioneer who reduces it to use, and helps to lay the foundations of a new State, finds a profit in the increasing value of land as the new State grows up. ”

“ When, therefore, all of the property of the corporation is assessed,-its franchise and all of its other property of every character,-then all of the stock of the corporation is assessed, and the mandate of the Constitution is complied with. This property is held by the corporation in trust for the stockholders, who are the beneficial owners of it in certain proportions called shares, and which are usually evidenced by certificates of stock. The share of each stockholder is undoubtedly property, but it is an interest in the very property held by the corporation. ”

“ The argument that the corporation, being the creature of the partners, was not a bona fide purchaser, and must be considered as having taken the property subject to all partnership equities against it, is not a sound one. The constitution of the corporation, and the transfer to it of the property, were authorized by law, and were intended to settle and extinguish these equities, and to place the concern on a new footing; and the very parties entitled to equities were the ones who organized the corporation, and made the conveyance to it. ”