References: (1880) 5 App Cas 857
Coram: Lord Blackburn
Lord Blackburn spoke of the presumption at common law that the word ‘person’ in an Act of Parliament includes ‘corporations’: ‘Circumstances, and indeed circumstances of a slight nature in the context, might show in which way the word is to be construed in an Act of Parliament . . whenever you can see that the object of the Act requires that the word ‘person’ shall have the more extended or less extended sense, then, whichever sense it requires, you should apply the word in that sense.’
This case is cited by:
- Cited – Floor -v- Davis (Inspector of Taxes) HL ([1980] AC 695, [1979] 2 WLR 830, [1979] 2 All ER 677)
The House considered whether the meaning of the phrase ‘a person having control’ extended to control by more than one person. This depended on whether the word ‘person’ in the singular was to be construed as including the plural.
Held: The . .