Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 6 P7 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 48 JOINT TENANCY Anxious investors wait for news about the South Sea Company a joint stock company formed in London in 1711. Joint stock companies are a form of partnership in which each member or stockholder is financially responsible for acts of the company. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS A joint stock company differs from a corporation in certain respects. A corporation exists under a state charter while a joint stock company is formed by an agreement among the members. The existence of a joint stock company is based upon the right of individuals to contract with each other and unlike a corporation does not require a grant of authority from the state before it can organize. Whereas members of a corporation are generally not held liable for debts of a corporation the members of a joint stock company are held liable as partners. In a legal action a corporation sues and is sued in its corporate name but a joint stock company sues and defends in the name of a designated officer. JOINT TENANCY A type of ownership of real or personal property by two or more persons in which each owns an undivided interest in the whole. In estate law joint tenancy is a special form of ownership by two or more persons of the same property. The individuals who are called joint tenants share equal ownership of the property and have the equal undivided right to keep or dispose of the property. Joint tenancy creates a right of survivorship. This right provides that if any one of the joint tenants dies the remainder of the property is transferred to the survivors. Descended from common-law tradition joint tenancy is closely related to two other forms of concurrent property ownership tenancy in common a less restrictive form of ownership that sometimes results when joint tenancies cease to exist and tenancy by the entirety a special form of joint tenancy for married couples. Joint tenants usually share ownership of land but the property may instead be money or other items. Four main features mark this .
