structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:voice_change, linguistic:paraphrasing
Companies

The first reported case on the capacity of a corporation was the Case of Sutton's Hospital (1612) 77 Eng Rep 960. That case is difficult to follow, but in Hazell v Hammersmith and Fulham LBC 2 AC 1 Lord Templeman referred to it, and summarised the decision: "That report, although largely incomprehensible in 1990, has been accepted as 'express authority' that at common law it is an incident to a corporation to use its common seal for the purpose of binding itself to anything which a natural person could bind himself and to deal with its property as a natural person might deal with his own."