ous. In the hands of competent surgeons many joint diseases are very slow in resolving. See KXKK .loiNT.
JOINT-STOCK COMPANY, or ASSOCIATION. An association of individuals who unite to carry on business for pain, by each tiiking and paying for shares in the common stock. At com- mon law it is a partnership (q.v. ), and is subject to the rules of partnership law. It dilTcrs from the ordinary' partnership, however, in three im- portant respects. ( 1 ) Its capital stock is divided into transmissible shares; that is, any share- holder can sell his shares to a third person, who becomes at once a member of the association, without the' assent of the sellei^s partners. (2) The death of a shareholder does not dissolve the company. (3) The conduct of a joint -stock com- pany's business is always limited to a few per- sons. A shareholder has no implied authority to act for the company. In order to bind it, he must be designated as a manager, or in some other way receive express authority to act for it. At present, both in England and in this coun- try, joint-stock companies are generally organ- ized under statutory provisions. The tendency of such statutes is to assimilate these companies to corporations, without really transforming them into artificial i)crsons. In England, legisla- tion has gone further in this direction than in our States. By the Companies Act of 1862 (25 and 26 Vict., c. Sfl) and acts amendatory thereof it is provided that "any seven or more persons associated for anv lawful purpose may. by sub- scril)ing their names to a memorandum of associa- tion, and otherwise complying with the requisi- tion of the act in ivspect to registration, form an incorporated company with or without limited lial)ility." If tlio proposed company is to he a limited association, the word 'Limited' must be the last word in its name. Since the enact- ment of this legislation, joint-stock companies have multiplied and flourished remarkably in England.
They have not gained equal popularity here, partly because the organization of corporations under general laws is much easier than in Great Britain, and partly because of the introduction of limited partnerships chiring the last cen- tury. While our State legislation varies in mat- ters of detail, it generally provides for the or- ganization of joint-stock companies by the exe- cution of certain written articles of association by the shareholders, and the filing of these ar- ticles in designated public offices. Their busi- ness is managed by directors and otlicers duly elected and announced. Actions may I)e main- tained by the company in the name of some designated officer or officers, and against the com- pany in such name. Wien a judgment is ob- tained against the company in a suit of this kind, execution is issued against the company's property, and not against the officer named as the representative of the company, nor against the property of sh.arebolders. Oftentimes the company is allowed to sue its memliers. as though they were strangers. But as a rule the cominon- law liability of each shareholder for all the debts and liabilities of the comjiany has not been modi- fied bj- our legislation. They may be dissolved by the mutual consent of all the shareholders, as in the case of an ordinary partnership, or by a decree of a court in a proper proceeding brought therefor. Consult: Hurrell and Hvde, Law of Joint Stock Companies (London, 1898): Lindley, The Laic of Coiiipatties (London, 1889); Birds- eye, Xew York Statutes, title "Joint Stock Asso- ciations" (New York, 1901).
JOINT TENANCY. A form of common own-
erslii]) (if rial m- personal property, in which each
owner is conceived of as owning the whole as well
as an luidivided and proportional share of the
property. This is descrilvcd l)y the quaint and
untranslatal)le expression that the ownership is
per my et per tout. It is of a curiously limited
character and can exist only when there is a
unity of interest, time, title, and possession;
that is, when the owners have identical interests,
accruing by one and the same conveyance, com-
mencing at one and the same time, and held
by one and the same luidiviiled possession. They
must all hold upon one and the same conditions
in every respe<'t, each of them being regarded as
having possession of every parcel and of the
whole estate, not indeed for every purpose, but in
respect of tenure and survivorship. For the pur-
pose of alienation each joint tenant has a right
only to his undivideil relative share of the prop-
erty, and the purchaser of such right does not
succeed to the position of the seller as a joint
tenant, but becomes a tenant in common with the
survivors of the joint tenancy who have not
alienated their shares. If there are two tenants,
each may dispose of an undivided half; if four,
an undivided quarter, and so on; but the pur-
chaser cannot enter upon the exclusive posses-
sion of his share, for the estate must remain
undivided, subject to an entirety of interest on
the part of each joint tenant, and to what is
called the principle of sun'ivorship, by which is
meant the right of the last survivor to the whole
projierty. In other words, wlien one of several
joint tenants dies his share passes to the sur-
vivors, and so on until the last siuwivor takes the
whole interest, whatever it may be, and upon his
death it will pass to his heirs. This right of
surv'ivorship, or jus acerescendi, as it is called,
is the principal and characteristic incident of a
joint tenancy.
An estate in joint tenancy cannot arise by de- scent or act of law, but only by purchase or acquisition, as a grant, a devise, or a disseisin. In this country such tenancy is comparatively uncomm.on. the law presuming nothing in its favor, but inclining rather toward tenancy in common, which exclu<les the principle of survivor- ship, and implies that the estate may be divided and each tenant take his proportionate share. By the conunon law. indeed, any conveyance to two or more persims without qualification was presumed to be in joint tenancy; but by statute in many American States this presumption has been reversed, and such a conveyance declared to be a tenancy in common imless the deed creating it contains an express statement to the contrary. An exception is. however, generally made in fa- vor of conveyances to executors or trustees, which are still deemed to be in joint tenancy. Joint tenants are regarded in law as a single owner as respect-s tliird parties, and they must therefore all be joined in any suits that concern their joint estate. Possession by one tenant is deemed the possession of all. and a conveyance to one a conveyance to all. See E.vtirety, Tenancy by; Joint OwNEHSHip; (ommox. Tenancy in: Par- CEXABY. Consult Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laics of England.
