hold, if rent be granted to J. S. dean, and J. S. clerk, who is the fame perfon; he fhall join with himself in avowry: fo where dean and chapter are lords of a fee, and the dean purchases the tenancy to him and his heirs; it has been faid, he is tenant to himself and chapter; and he and his chapter fhall make avowry on himself (a). Qu.? IT has been before (b) observed, that, by the general rule of the common law, a body corporate is capable of taking any grant of privileges and franchises in the fame manner as private perfons; to enumerate, therefore, the privileges and franchises of which they are capable, would be to enumerate all the franchises and privileges known to the law, which is not the object of the present work. Of all privileges and franchises belonging to corporations, the inheritance is in the body collectively taken, though every individual member is particularly interested in them (c). Of fome the exercise and enjoyment can be only by the corporation at large; of others, the exercise and enjoyment may be by the particular members. Of the former kind, are the privilege of holding courts, the franchise of a market, the privilege which fome cities and towns enjoy of being counties of themselves, and exempted from the general jurisdiction of the sheriff of the county in which they are, and many others; of the latter kind the following are examples. Ir a grant be made to the mayor and commonalty of a city, that the citizens fhall not be compelled to ferve on juries out of the city, each individual citizen shall take ad (a) 14 H. 8, 2, 29. Bro. Corpor. 34. (b) Vid. page 74. vantage vantage of this grant, when he comes to the book to be fworn (a); and it is said, that this is the only way in which advantage shall be taken of the privilege, and that a return of the charter made by the sheriff to the venire facias, will not be allowed (b). But if any of the citizens fhould, notwithstanding such a grant, permit himself to be impanelled out of the city, without infifting on his privilege, this shall not preclude the citizens from taking advantage of it at another time (c). So, where the King granted to the mayor and commonalty of the city of London, that no prisage should be paid of the wines of the citizens and freemen of London, it was resolved, that though the grant was to the corporation, yet it should not enure to the body politic of the city, but to the particular perfons of the corporation who fhould individually affert their claim to the exemption (d). BUT this privilege fhall extend only to thofe goods of which the citizen is fole owner, and not to thofe of which he is owner jointly or in common with another who is not a citizen, and therefore, for all goods of which he is owner jointly or in common, prifage fhall be paid: fo, he who would claim the benefit of fuch a charter, must be the intire owner, and therefore a citizen, who has the goods as a pledge, fhall not have the benefit of it, because he has only a special property: fo, he must have the real and true property in the goods; and therefore if a stranger import goods and fell them to a citizen, with an intent to have them refold to himself after they are unloaded, he must (d) Vid. Waller v. Hanger, Mo. 832, 833, cited 2 Ld. Raym. 952. N 4 pay pay the duty fo, if a citizen be disfranchifed before the goods be unloaded, he must pay the duty; so, if he fell them to another before they are unloaded: fo the citizen who would claim the privilege must be commorant in the city, and not elsewhere. BUT if the citizen who is the real owner of the goods die before the arrival of them at the port, which is the period when the duty accrues, yet the exemption continues, because it is a privilege for the discharge of his debts, and for his will; the executor or administrator has no property in them for his own benefit merely in that character, nor can they be affected by any act of his (a). WHERE a corporation claims common by prefcription for all the freemen, each particular freeman shall enjoy the fruit and benefit of it, though the inheritance be in the body politic, and may put his cattle in the common; and on an action of trespass being brought against him, may juftify under the prescriptive right of the corporation (b). IF a grant be made to the mayor and commonalty of a city, that the citizens fhall be quit of toll, or other fimilar duties, every citizen individually shall take advantage of the grant, and affert his right to the exemption by action (c). THE fame obfervation is applied by Lord C. J. Holt to the right of electing members of parliament granted to a corporation; "the inheritance of this right of election itself is in the whole body politic, but the exercise and enjoyment of it is in the particular members," to whom by the provifions of the charter it is committed, and any one (a) 1 Rol. Rep. 142, 148. 3 Bulftr. 1, 26. (b) Mellor, v. Spateman, 1 Saund. 343, cited 2 Ld. Raym. 953. (c) Vid. mayor, &c. of Lynn, v. mayor, &c. of London, 4 Term Rep. 130, et feq. intitled intitled to a vote, may maintain an action against the prefiding officer for refufing his vote (a). HAVING confidered the capacity of corporations with respect to their property and privileges, it follows naturally that we should fay főmething with refpect to their capacity of fuing and being fued. This part of the subject refolves itfelf into two queftions. 1. What actions they can bring? and, 2. What actions may be brought against them?-To both which one general anfwer may be given, that they may maintain all fuch actions as are neceffary to affert their rights when invaded, or to give them a recompence for any injury that can be done to them; and that all fuch actions may be maintained against them, as are neceffary to enforce the claims of others in oppofition to them. ALL corporations aggregate, having the fee fimple of 'ca minue their poffeffions, may maintain a writ of right, as any tenant in fee fimple may (b), and fo may thofe fole corporations who have the fee fimple abfolute in their poffeffions; a bishop for the poffeffions of his bishopric; a dean or master of an hofpital, for thofe poffeffions which they hold distinct from the chapter or the hospital respectively; and fo might an abbot or prior for the poffeffions of their monaftries. But thofe fole corporations which have not the fee fimple in them, as a parfon, vicar, prebendary, and in ancient times a chauntry priest, cannot maintain a writ of right, but the higheft writ which they can have is a (a) Vid. Afhby, v. White, et al. 2 Ld. Raym. 938, 951. Salk. 19. (b) Vid. case of All Souls college, Cro. El. 232. Co. Lit. 341 b. F. N. B. 5. C. juris utrum (a), which is a writ in the form of an affize, but determines both the right and the poffeffion (b). It lay, and ftill lies, though obsolete, where lands or tenements were alienated by the predeceffor, or where a recovery had been had against the predeceffor by default or by furrender, or where the predeceffor had not pleaded or prayed in aid of the patron and ordinary. But if he had prayed in aid of the patron and ordinary, and they had joined in aid, and rendered the land or confessed the action, then the fucceffor could not have this writ against the recoveree. If a parfon had been diffeised of lands and tenements, parcel of his rectory, and died; or if, after the death of a parfon, a man had intruded into fuch lands and tenements, the fucceffor should have had this writ (c). As these corporations which had not the fee fimple abfolutely in them, could not have a writ of right properly fo called, so neither could they have a writ of customs and fervices, ne injufte vexes, rationabilibus divifis, quo jure, or such other writs as were grounded on the mere right (d). BUT they might have a writ of waste, a writ of entry ad communem legem, a writ de confimili cafu, ad terminum qui præteriit, or a quod permittat, a writ contra formam col (a) Rex vice comiti falutem. Si A. perfona ecclefiæ de E. fecerit te fecurum, &c. tunc fummoneas, &c. 12 liberos, &c. de vicineto de E. quod fint coram juftitiariis noftris ad primam affifam, &c. vel coram juftitiariis noftris tali die, parati facramento recognofcere, utrum messuagium cum pertinentiis in E. fit libera eleemofyna pertinens ad ecclefiam ipfius A. de E. an laicum feodum S. et interim meffuagium illud videant et nomina eorum imbreviari facias. Et fummoneas per bonos fummonitores, prædi&tum S. qui meffuagium illud tenet, quod tunc fit ibi ad audiendum illam recognitionem. Et habeas, &c. fumm', &c. et hoc breve. Tefte, &c. Reg. Brev. Or. 32 b. (b) Vid. Reeves's Hiftory of English Law, vol. 1. 366, 368. (c) F. N. B. 49. A. (d) F. N. B. 49. L. Co, Lit. 341. b. lationis, |