Responsibility of Corporation Sole - Legal Position
Keywords:
Artificial person, corporation aggregate, corporation sole, damages, legal personalityAbstract
A corporation is an artificial person enjoying in law capacity to have rights and duties and
holding property. In actions for tort, the corporation may be held responsible for damages for the
acts of its agent when the act is done by the agent in the course of his employment, although
done only recklessly or against the express orders of the principal. In such cases the liability is
not imputed because the principal actually participates in the malice or fraud, but because the act
is done for the benefit of the principal, while the agent is acting within the scope of his
employment in the business of the principal, and justice requires that the latter shall be held
responsible for damages to the individual who has suffered by such conduct.
References
1. Section 34 of Companies Act, 1956
2. This Act has been replaced by the Companies Act, 1956 (in a partial manner) after receiving the assent of the President of India on 29 August 2013.
3. Art 300 of Constitution of India.
4. Colonial Bank v. Whilley, (1885) 30 Ch. D. 261.
5. (1887) AC 22.
6. State Trading Corporation of India, Ltd v. Commercial Tax Officer, Vishakapattanam, A.I.R. 1963 S.C. 1811.
7. A.I.R. 1965, S.C. 40
8. [1897] A.C.22
9. M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, 1986 1 CLJ 251
10. Delhi Municipal Corporation v. Purushottam Dass Jhunjunwala (1983) 1 SCC 9
11. DB Saxena. Liabilities of Directors and Officers of the Companies. Chartered Secretary (1998), p. A198
12. 1988(38)ELT 264
13. K Balakrishnan. Corporate Criminal Liability: A Comparative View . [1998] C.U.L.R. 421 at p.436.
14. Lake Shore & M. S. R. Co. v. Prentice, 147 U.S. 101, 109, 111 S., 37 L. ed. 97, 102, 103, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 261.
15. Lothrop v. Adams, 133 Mass. 471, 43 Am. Rep. 528.
