preview

Corporate Capacity And Authority

Good Essays

Corporate capacity and authority were essential legal concepts which contained rules for when and how a company ought to be legally recognised as having validly acted and entered into a binding contract with third parties. Broadly speaking, the rules which applied to corporate capacity were the ultra vires doctrine and the doctrine of constructive notice. In regard to the concept of corporate authority, both the ultra vires doctrine and the doctrine of constructive notice also applied however their application was curtailed by the Turquand rule. The Turquand rule therefore only applied when the authority of directors was in question. A definitional overview of the concepts of corporate capacity and authority will be provided below, along with brief description of the doctrine of constructive notice and the Turquand rule. The thesis deals with the above concepts and discusses how the Companies Act 71 of 2008 (the Act) modified the law, particularly, by extending the legal capacity of a company and extinguishing or modifying the above rules which had previously restricted a company's ability …show more content…

For a company to transact with third parties and to enter into valid business dealings there must be a valid contract concluded in order to create legally binding obligations enforceable between the company and the third party. For a contract to be valid the company must have the requisite legal capacity to enter into the contract and the directors or officers representing the company must have the authority to act on its behalf. Within company law, capacity and authority are interrelated principles however it is important to note that each is an entirely different and separate legal concept from the other. Capacity relates to the legal competency and the powers of the company while authority relates to the power of a company's director or officer to act on behalf of the

Get Access