| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for limiting the Liability of Members of certain Joint Stock Companies. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 18 & 19 Vict. c. 133 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 14 August 1855 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Limited Liability Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 133) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that first expressly allowed limited liability for corporations that could be established by the general public in England and Wales as well as Ireland.[2] The Act did not apply to Scotland,[3] where the limited liability of shareholders for the debts company debts had been recognised since the mid-Eighteenth century with the decision in the case of Stevenson v McNair.[4] Although the validity of the decision in that case had come to be doubted by the mid-Nineteenth century,[5] the Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 – which applied across the UK – put the matter beyond doubt, settling that Scottish 'companies' could be possessed of both separate legal personality and limited liability.
- ^ This short title was conferred on this Act by section 19 of this Act.
- ^ Mayson, French and Ryan (2005) 55
- ^ Limited Liability Act 1855, s.18
- ^ [1757] 14667
- ^ Kenneth G. C. Reid, 'Embalmed in Rettie: The City of Glasgow Bank and the Liability of Trustees' in Andrew Burrows, David Johnston and Reinhard Zimmermann (Eds.), [Judge and Jurist: Essays in Memory of Lord Rodger of Earlsferry], (Oxford University Press, 2013), at 492