St. Louis Law Review (Volume 3)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919. Excerpt: ... ST. LOUIS LAW REVIEW V-.1 III Published by the Undergraduates of the M A ol' m Washington University Law School w n A STUDY OF MISSOURI CASES, AND SOME OTHERS, WHICH TREAT OF DE FACTO CORPORATIONS A principle which widely pervades the law is deference to an established fact, even when it has not been established in the precise mode prescribed by law. It has been found necessary for the convenient, and even for the practicable conduct of affairs, to accord, in some instances, a measure of legality to a status that, in strictness, is illegal. Thus in the feudal law of real property a disseisor in the possession of a freehold estate, enjoyed the rights of ownership and his heir the right of inheritance until the true owner recovered possession, a rule yet partly in force. A person in possession of chattels, though without title, has the prerogatives of title as against every one but the owner or those claiming under the latter. Governments founded by revolution or conquest are treated as lawful and their acts as valid, after they seem to be stable; and the actual incumbents of public offices, albeit without a true election or appointment, are regarded as so far entitled to their places as to render their acts valid. With the like hope of facilitating the transaction of business, courts have made use of this principle in the law of corporations, and thereby have introduced the doctrine of corporate bodies dc facto--a doctrine which some commentators have questioned as an unwise extension of the de facto principle (20 Harvard Law Review, p. 456 et seq.) and which all will admit has proved difficult to use, as is shown by the discordant views as to when it should be applied. As corporations de jure in this country must be created by, or pursuant to, le...