KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

COMPASS

COMPANION OF THE GARTER

231

undertakings of a public nature by com panies, unless expressly excepted by such later acts. Its purpose is declared by the preamble to be to avoid repeating provisions as to the constitution and management of the companies, and to secure greater uni formity in such provisions. Wharton. COMPANION OF THE GARTER. One of the knights of the Order of the Garter. In French law. A gen eral term, comprehending all persons who compose the crew of a ship or vessel. Poth. Mar. Cont. no. 163. A society or association of persons, in considerable number, interested in a common object, and uniting themselves for the prosecution of some commercial or industrial undertaking, or other legitimate business. Mills v. State, 23 Tex. 303; Smith v. Janesville, 52 Wis. 680, 9 N. W. 789. The proper signification of the word "com pany," when applied to persons engaged in trade, denotes those united for the same purpose or in a joint concern. It is so commonly used in this sense, or as indicating a partnership, that few persons accustomed to purchase goods at shops, where they are sold by retail, would misapprehend that such was its meaning. Palmer v. Pinkham, 33 Me. 32. Joint stock companies. Joint stock com panies are those having a joint stock or capital, which is divided into numerous trans ferable shares, or -consists of transferable stock. Lindl. Partn. 6. The term is not identical with "partner ship," although every unincorporated society is, in its legal relations, a partnership. In common use a distinction is made, the name "partnership" being reserved for business associations of a limited number of persons (usually not more than four or five) trading under a name composed of their individual names set out in succession; while "com pany" is appropriated as the designation of a society comprising a larger number of persons, with greater capital, and engaged in more extensive enterprises, and trading under a title not disclosing the names of the individuals. See Allen v. Long, 80 Tex. 261, 16 S. W. 43, 26 Am. St. Rep. 735; Adams Exp. Co. v. Schofield, 111 Ky. 832, 64 S. W. 903; Kossakowski v. People, 177 111. 563, 53 N. E. 115; In re Jones, 28 Misc. Rep. 356, 59 N. Y. Supp. 983; Attorney General v. Mercantile Marine Ins. Co., 121 Mass. 525. Sometimes the word is used to represent those members of a partnership whose names do not appear in the name of the firm. See 12 Toullier, 97. —Limited company. A company in which the liability of each shareholder is limited by the number of shares he has taken, so that he cannot be called on to contribute beyond the amount of his shares. In England, the memo randum of association of such company may pro vide that the liability of the directors, manager, or managing director thereof shall be unlimit ed. 30 & 31 Vict, a 131; 1 Lindl. Partn. 383; COMPANIONS. COMPANY.

Mozley & Whitley.— Public company. la English law. A business corporation; a so ciety of persons joined together for carrying on some commercial or industrial undertaking. In the civil law. Comparison of writings, or hand writings. A mode of proof allowed in cer tain cases. Proceeding by the method of comparison; founded on compari son; estimated by comparison. —Comparative interpretation. That meth od of interpretation which seeks to arrive at the meaning of a statute or other writing by comparing its several parts and also by com paring it as a whole with other like documents proceeding from the same source and referring to the same general subject. Glenn v. York County, 6 Rich. (S. C.) 412.—Comparative jurisprudence. The study of the principles of legal science by the comparison of various systems of law.—Comparative negligence. That doctrine in the law of negligence by which the negligence of the parties is compared, in the degrees of "slight," "ordinary," and "gross" negligence, and a recovery permitted, notwith standing the contributory negligence of the plaintiff, when the negligence of the plaintiff is slight and the negligence of the defendant gross, but refused when the plaintiff has been guilty of a want of ordinary care, thereby con tributing to his injury, or when the negligence of the defendant is not gross, but only ordinary or slight, when compared, under the circumstan ces of the case, with the contributory negligence of the plaintiff. 3 Amer. & Eng. Enc Law, 367. See Steel Co. v. Martin, 115 111. 358, 3 N. E. 456; Railroad Co. v. Ferguson, 113 Ga. 708, 39 S. E. 306, 54 L. R. A. 802; Straus v. Railroad Co., 75 Mo. 185; Hurt v. Railroad Co.. 94 Mo. 255, 7 S. W. 1, 4 Am. St. Rep. 374. HANDWRITING. A comparison by the juxtaposition of two writings, in order, by such comparison, to ascertain whether both were written by the same person. A method of proof resorted to where the genuineness of a written document is dis puted; it consists in comparing the hand writing of the disputed paper with that of another instrument which Is proved or ad mitted to be in the writing of the party sought to be charged, in order to infer, from their identity or similarity in this respect, that they are the work of the same hand. Johnson v. Insurance Co., 105 Iowa, 273, 75 N. W. 101; Rowt v. Kile, 1 Leigh (Va.) 216; Travis v. Brown, 43 Pa. 9, 82 Am. Dec. 540. COMPARATIO UTERARUM. COMPARATIVE COMPARISON OF

COMPASCuuM.

Belonging to common the right of common

age. Jus compascuum,

of pasture.

COMPASS, THE MARINER'S. An in strument used by mariners to point out the course of a ship at sea. It consists of a magnetized steel bar called the "needle," at tached to the under side of a card, upon which are drawn the points of the compass, and supported by a fine pin, upon which it turns freely in a horizontal plane.