Atlas Maritime Co SA v Avalon Maritime Ltd (No.1) [1991] 4 All ER 769
Citation:Atlas Maritime Co SA v Avalon Maritime Ltd (No.1) [1991] 4 All ER 769
Rule of thumb: What is meant by lifting the corporate veil? This case coins the phrase lifting the corporate veil – it means that the shareholders who own shares in the company can be sued.
Judgment:
This case famously coined the principle of ‘piercing the corporate veil’ or ‘lifting the corporate’ – all of the exceptions to the separate personality principle can be collectively referred to as ‘piercing the corporate veil’, ‘to pierce the corporate veil is an expression I would reserve for treating the rights or liabilities or activities of the shareholders as the rights or liabilities or activities of the shareholders. To lift the corporate veil, or to look behind it, on the other hand, should mean to have regard to the shareholding of some purpose’, Staughton Lj
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