Also known as: enterprises
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A business organization or venture undertaken for profit or other purposes. The term encompasses both formal legal entities and informal associations of persons pursuing unified activities under common control.
Emma Erickson directs her employee at Echelon Security to install surveillance equipment at a client's site. The employee instead uses the tools to conduct an unauthorized search of a neighboring property. The court examines whether the employee's act fell outside the enterprise of the master when assessing vicarious liability.
Enigma Technologies publishes a detailed price list for its software services on its website. Eduardo Enriquez reviews the list and emails the company stating he accepts the terms for a one-year license. The court determines whether the price list constituted an offer by a business enterprise or merely an invitation to negotiate.
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Edgewater Capital holds an easement across Eastern Electric's land to access a power substation. Over time the company upgrades the lines to support increased demand from a growing data-center enterprise on the dominant estate. The servient owner challenges whether the intensified use remains reasonably necessary for the enterprise benefited by the servitude.
Ella Emerson, a claims adjuster at Eastern Electric, prepares an accident report immediately after a workplace injury. The report follows company protocol but is created with an eye toward potential litigation. The court decides whether the document qualifies as a record of the railroad's regular enterprise or instead serves a primary litigation purpose.
Enzo Eastwood serves as trustee of a family trust that holds shares in Echelon Security. Eastwood also owns a controlling interest in a competing security firm. The beneficiaries challenge whether the competing firm constitutes an enterprise in which the trustee holds an interest that might affect his judgment.
Emily Ellis and several associates each submit separate loan applications through a single broker. Prosecutors argue the submissions form one overarching enterprise. The court distinguishes a single common enterprise from multiple separate but similar ventures undertaken by the participants.
The inquiry focuses on whether the servant's act lies outside the master's enterprise or was never entrusted to any servant. Courts weigh prior relations between master and servant and the similarity between the authorized act and the act performed.
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Advertisements and price lists are ordinarily invitations to negotiate rather than offers. An offer arises only when the communication contains language of commitment or invites acceptance without further negotiation.
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The holder may increase the manner, frequency, and intensity of use to reflect technological developments and normal development of the dominant estate or enterprise, provided the use remains reasonably necessary and does not cause unreasonable damage.
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A record prepared primarily in anticipation of litigation rather than in the regular conduct of the enterprise's business does not qualify. The primary purpose of the document controls admissibility.
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A conflict arises when the trustee or a person owning a significant interest in the trustee holds an interest in a corporation or other enterprise that might affect the trustee's best judgment.
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…66.2 (Purdon 1959 and Supp. 1991-1992). As the Court of Appeals observed, "[w]hen a state provides money to a private commercial enterprise, there is a legitimate public interest in informing taxpayers who the funds are benefiting and what services the funds are supporting." 947 F. 2d, at 718. These reporting requirements…