ARTIFICIAL PERSON

In a figurative sense, a body of men or company are sometimes called an artificial person, because the law associates them as one, and gives them various powers possessed by natural persons. Corporations are such artificial persons. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 177. AS. A word purely Latin. It has two significations. First, it signifies weight, and in this sense, the Roman as, is the same thing as the Roman pound, which was composed of twelve ounces. It was divided also into many other parts (as may be seen in the law, Servum de hoeredibus, Inst. Lib. xiii. Pandect,) viz. uncia, 1 ounce; sextans, 2 ounces; quodrans, 3 ounces; triens, 4 ounces quincunx, 5 ounces; semis, 6 ounces; septunx, 7 ounces; bes, 8 ounces, dodrans, 9 ounces; dextans, 10 ounces; deunx, 11 ounces. 2. From this primitive and proper sense of the word another was derived: that namely of the totality of a thing, Solidum quid. Thus as signified the whole of an inheritance, so that an heir ex asse, was an heir of the whole inheritance. An heir ex triente, ex semisse, ex besse, or ex deunce, was an heir of one-third, one-half, two-thirds, or eleven-twelfths.