SUCCESSION. This is a legal term derived from the Roman " Successio," which signifies a coming into the place of another, and Successor is he who comes into such place.
The Roman terns signifies a coming into the place of another so as to have the same rights and obligations with respect to property which that other had. There might be successio either by coming into the place of a person living, or by becom ing the successor of one who was dead. Gaius 77, &c.) gives instances of successio in the case of persons living, one instance of which is the Bonorum Cessio according to the Lex Julia. Suc cession was again either Universal or Sin. gular. The instances of universal suc cession (per universitatem) which Gains (ii. 97) enumerates, are the being made a person's heres, getting the possessio of the bona of another, buying all a man's pro perty, adopting a person by adrogatio, and admitting a woman into the menus as a wife: in all which cases all the property of the several persons enumerated passed at once to the person who was made here., or got the bonorum possessio, or bought the whole property, or adopted another by adrogation, or married the woman. An instance of singular succession is the taking of a legacy under a man's will.
The term Succession is used in our language. We speak of the succession to the crown or the regal dignity, and the term implies that the successor in all things represents the predecessor. Indeed, the king, as a political person, never dies, and upon the natural death of a king the heir immediately succeeds. The English
heir at law takes the deseendible lands of his ancestor as universal successor ; and the executor takes the chattels real and other personal property of his testator as universal successor. The general assignee or assignees of a bankrupt or insolvent take by universal succession.
Blackstone says that "corporations ag gregate consist of many persons united together into one society, and are kept up by a perpetual succession of members, so as to continue for ever." It is true that when members of a corporate body die others are appointed to fill up their places, but they' do not succeed to the others in the Roman sense of succession—they sim ply become members of the corporation. But it has been established in some cases [CORPORATIONS, p. 679] that the use of the word "successors" implies that the legislature meant to establish a corpo ration; and yet it is certain that a feoff ment of laud to a corporation aggregate without the word " successors " is a valid grant. In a feoffment to a corporation sole the word "successors" is necessary. The succession in the case of a corpora tion sole follows the nature of the Roman succession. In the case of a corporaticn aggregate there is no succession, and the rule that a corporation may be established by the use of the word " successors" in a statute is founded ou an erroneous under standing of the term "successors."