corporate veiln.
/ˌkɔːp(ə)rət ˈveɪl/, U.S. /ˌkɔrp(ə)rət ˈveɪl/ In corporate law: used with reference to the treatment of a corporation as an entity separate from its owners, directors, and shareholders, thus protecting them from personal liability for the company's debts and other obligations. Frequently in to pierce (also lift, etc.) the corporate veil.
ΚΠ
1884 E. M. Colton vs. L. Stanford et al: 50th Day: Testimony for Defendants 5649 A matter directly affecting himself, and his copartners personally and individually, not mixed up or clouded by any corporate interest, and no corporate veil interposed between them.
1893 Rep. Supreme Court N.Y. 79 84 A court of equity will go behind the corporate veil, with which these parties undertook to hide from view the real transaction and the parties who were executing it, and administer equity in accordance with the facts disclosed.
1920 Yale Law Jrnl. 29 772 Three layers of corporate veil were stripped from the vessel to disclose the human beings whose economic interests as beneficial owners it was designed to reach.
1984 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 15 Oct. (heading) Business law Directors cannot take cover behind the corporate veil.
1995 National June 28/2 He turns to the painter and gives him a short lesson about the corporate veil, concluding with explicit instructions on how to amend his claim.
Phrases
to pierce (also lift, etc.) the corporate veil to identify the rights or duties of a corporation with the rights or liabilities of its owners, shareholders, or directors in certain circumstances, thus exposing them to liability on the corporation's behalf.
ΚΠ
1917 Yale Law Jrnl. 27 112 By the organization of subsidiary companies, with local directors in ostensible control, it would seem possible for large corporations..to minimize the effects of an eventual taint of enemy character—a result created by the courts through their hesitation in piercing the corporate veil.
1919 J. T. Carter Nature Corporation as Legal Entity iii. 79 Courts will not hesitate to ‘look through’ or ‘set aside’ the entity,—to ‘lift the corporate veil’.
1962 Financial Times 29 Mar. 9/5 The persistent refusal by English judges to pierce the corporate veil..has led to some startling and unjust consequences.
2005 B. Hanotiau Complex Arbitrations i. 47 The cessation of significant activities by the subsidiary and its directors is equally a factor that facilitates piercing the corporate veil.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2021).
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n.1884