Advantages And Disadvantages Of Incorporation

This essay will explain the concepts of separate personality and limited liability and their significance in company law. The principle of separate personality is defined in the Companies Act 2006(CA) ; “subscribers to the memorandum, together with such other persons as may from time to time become members of the company are a body corporate by the name contained in memorandum.” This essentially means that a company is a separate legal personality to its members and therefore can itself be sued and enter into contracts. This theory was birthed into company law through the case of Salomon v Salomon and Co LTD 1872. This case involved a company entering liquidation and the unsecured creditors not being able to claim assets to compensate them. The issue in this case was whether Mr Salomon owed the money or the company did. In the end, the House of Lords held that the company was not an agent of Mr Salomon and so the debts were that of the company thus creating the “corporate Veil” .

Although courts are reluctant to hold an active shareholder liable for actions that are legally the responsibility of the corporation, even if the corporation has a single shareholder, they will often do so if the corporation was markedly noncompliant, or if holding only the corporation liable would be singularly unfair to the plaintiff. The ruling is based on common law precedents. In the US, different theories, most important "alter ego" or "instrumentality rule", attempted to create a piercing standard. Generally, the plaintiff has to prove that the incorporation was merely a formality and that the corporation neglected corporate formalities and protocols, such as voting to approve major corporate actions in the context of a duly authorized corporate meeting. This is quite often the case when a corporation facing legal liability transfers its assets and business to another corporation with the same management and shareholders. It also happens with single person corporations that are managed in a haphazard manner. As such, the veil can be pierced in both civil cases and where regulatory proceedings are taken against a shell corporation.

Liability: Ownership of a C-Corporation is vested in its stockholders, whose liability is limited to the amount of their investment. The Corporation is liable for all of its debts, and for the actions of employees acting as agents of the organization. Creditors may lay claim against corporate assets, but cannot reach stockholders’ personal assets. Additionally, stockholders have no claim against corporate assets.

* Limited Liability - Unlike partnerships and sole proprietorships, corporate shareholders are not liable for any of the corporation's debts.

Woodward, S., Bird, H. & Sievers, S. (2005). Corporations Law in Principle 7th ed. Pyrmont, NSW: Lawbook Co.

This is the most common type of company and is what most people have in mind when considering whether or not to set up a company. Each shareholder’s liability is limited to the amount unpaid on the shareholding owned by them. However, the shareholder must also be aware that they run the risk of losing monies paid to the company whether in full or part payment of the shares owned by them.

As discussed earlier in the chapter, one of the primary reasons to organize a business as a corporation or as a limited liability company (LLC) is to protect the personal assets of the principals. As a general rule of corporate law, which has been a part of the U.S. legal system for over two centuries, the principals of a corporation are not personally liable for a corporation’s debts and obligations. In other words, a corporation’s principals are generally immune from personal liability for the decisions they make and the actions they undertake on behalf of a corporation. For example, assume that Corporation A contracts with Corporation B to purchase equipment valued at $500,000. If Corporation A fails to pay Corporation B for the equipment it purchased, the principals of Corporation A are not personally liable to Corporation B. Rather, Corporation A, the party in privity of contract with Corporation B, remains liable for the liability it incurred. A so-called “corporate veil” protects the principals of Corporation A, which insulates them from legal actions taken by Corporation B to

Salomon v Salomon and Co. Ltd (1897) AC 22 - when Aron Salomon sold his business to Salomon and Co. Ltd. Company, where he was still the major shareholder and some of his family was also a member. He also received a debenture as part of the payment for a secured term. But when the company has gone into liquidation during the 1890’s some argued that his

Salamon v. Salamon & Co. Ltd has a significance principle that has been recognised universally. Refer to s16(5) in The Act, once company is registered, the new company is a juristic person that separate from its members. Likewise, company has the full responsible on its own debts and contractual

From the beginning of the judicial history, the lawyers and judges have emphasized about how a corporation is an intangible legal entity alone without body or soul (Arthur and Machen, 1911). The doctrine of separate legal personality basically is about how a corporation and the owners were two different entity (Kelly, Hammer and Hendy, 2014). The Limited Liability Act which replaced by the Joint Stock Companies Act 1856, is where the members are only liable up to the amount that

In recent times, there has been an increased incidence among large scale business organizations to structure their operations through the form of corporate groups, with many domestic and international subsidiaries, wholly owned or otherwise, with the corporate veil ensuring that each of these enjoy separate corporate legal personality and limited liability. The existence of these ‘corporate groups’, with subsidiary companies being heavily controlled by their parent companies, have necessitated interpretations and applications of existing corporate legal principles to this novel context, even in case of the basic tenets of corporate law. The circumstances associated with corporate veil piercing, through detailed consideration of conditions to treating holding and subsidiary companies as one legal unit, with associated civil liabilities, is also an issue of heated debate.

When a company is incorporated it is treated as a separate legal entity distinct from its promoters, directors, members, and employees, which confers the benefit of not being responsible for the companies debt on the members on the company. However even though a company is a separate legal entity and it attains the advantage of not laying the responsibility of company’s debt on the

There is no clear framework of the rules that would cover the contingencies of a ruling to pierce the corporate veil Idoport Pty Ltd v National Australia Bank Ltd. The corporate Veil usually protects owners and shareholders from being held liable for corporate duties. Yet again a decision made by the court to lift that veil and would place the liability on shareholders, owners, administrators, executives and officers of the company without ownership interest. The purpose of this essay is to conduct an analysis on the concept of lifting the corporate veil and to review the different views on its fairness and equitability to present a better understanding of the notion, the methods used was throughout researching the numerous scholars views on the subject, case law and statutes examples, and the evidence provided by the empirical study of Ramsay & Noakes. When we discuss the lifting the corporate veil the first case that pops out is the case of Salomon V A. Salomon & Co Ltd, since the decisions of applying the corporate veil were first formed as a consequence of this case. The idea covers all of company law and distinguishes that a company is a separate legal entity from its members and directors. Furthermore, spencer (2012); have indicated that one of the core principles that followed the decision in Salomon v Salomon was the wide acceptance one man company’s. However In order to form a

This doctrine has been seen as a “two- edged sword,” reason being that at a general level while it was seen as a good decision in that by establishing that corporations are separate legal entities, Salomon 's case endowed the company with the entire requisite attributes with which to become the powerhouse of capitalism. At a particular level, however, it was a bad decision. By extending the benefits of incorporation to small private enterprises, Salomon 's case has promoted fraud and the evasion of legal obligations.

Corporation origin from the Latin word Corpus which means body. It is formed by a group of people and has separate rights and liability from those individual. In any means, corporation exists independently from its owner and this principle is called the doctrine of separate personality. Doctrine of separate personality is the basic and fundamental principle in a Company Law. This principle outline the legal relationship between company and its members. Company’s assets belong to the company not the shareholders as assets are the equity for creditors. Company must use up all its assets to pay off the creditors if it became insolvent. The same applies to the corporation’s debts. For limited liabilities company, the shareholder liability is limited which means that the shareholder is restricted to the number of shares they paid and not personally liable for the corporation’s debts. If the company does not have enough equity to pay off debts, the creditors cannot come after the shareholders. However, limited liability company can be very powerful when in hands who do fraud and on defeating creditors’ claims. Courts then can ignore the doctrine for exception cases and lifting the corporate veil. Lifting the corporate veil is a situation where courts put aside limited liability and hold a corporation’s shareholders or directors personally liable for the corporation’s debts.