Definition
"Petual" does not appear to be a recognized legal term of art with an independent definition. The source material retrieved under this heading contains entries for "artificial succession" and "hereditary succession," suggesting that "petual" may be a truncated or corrupted form of "perpetual" — as in perpetual succession, a foundational concept in corporate law — or alternatively a transcription or indexing artifact in the source dictionary.
If the intended term is PERPETUAL SUCCESSION, it refers to the legal attribute of a corporation (or other juridical entity) by which the entity continues to exist independently of changes in its membership, ownership, or governing personnel. The corporation as a legal person remains constant even as the individuals comprising it — stockholders, directors, officers — change entirely over time. This uninterrupted continuity is one of the defining characteristics distinguishing a corporation from a partnership or natural person.
If the intended term is PERPETUAL (standing alone), it describes a right, interest, obligation, or instrument that has no fixed termination date and is intended to continue indefinitely.
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Common Confusion
"Petual" should not be treated as an independent legal term. Researchers encountering it in an index, headnote, or historical document should first verify whether the source text reads "perpetual." Optical character recognition errors and historical typesetting irregularities frequently drop syllables from longer words, and "perpetual" is a common casualty. If the surrounding context concerns corporate existence or succession, the intended concept is almost certainly perpetual succession.
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Why It Matters in Research
The practical research issue here is source integrity, not doctrine. Historical legal dictionaries — including early editions of Black's — were typeset by hand, later photographically reproduced, and in many cases subsequently digitized by automated character recognition. All three processes introduce errors. A researcher who encounters "petual" as an apparent headword should treat it as a flag for source corruption rather than evidence of a distinct legal concept.
The associated source material — definitions of artificial succession and hereditary succession — confirms the likely context. Artificial succession (the corporation's continuity despite member turnover) is closely related to perpetual succession and is sometimes treated as synonymous with it. Hereditary succession, by contrast, concerns descent of property at common law and is conceptually separate.
For researchers using the Law Mind corpus: if "petual" appears as a search result or index entry, run the same search for "perpetual" and "perpetual succession" before concluding the term is sui generis. Cross-reference artificial succession entries, which frequently appear in the same dictionary sections and address the same underlying corporate-law concept.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) does not contain a freestanding definition for "petual." The entry retrieved under this term is a composite block containing definitions of artificial succession and hereditary succession, consistent with a mid-entry fragment where the headword "perpetual succession" or a related compound term has been partially lost.
The definition of artificial succession provided in the source — "that attribute of a corporation by which, in contemplation of law, the company itself remains always the same though its constituent members or stockholders may change from time to time" — is substantively accurate and consistent with how perpetual succession is treated across historical legal dictionaries. The citation to Thomas v. Dakin, 22 Wend. (N.Y.) 100, is a real New York case addressing corporate attributes and may be consulted for the common-law context.
Historical dictionaries generally treat perpetual succession as one of the classic Blackstonian incidents of a corporation, alongside the ability to sue and be sued, to hold property, to have a common seal, and to make bylaws. The concept predates modern corporate statutes and has roots in ecclesiastical and municipal corporation law.
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