Also known as: enterprise organizations · enterprise
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A business or commercial undertaking conducted for profit. The phrase identifies the ongoing activity or entity whose regular operations supply the context for applying rules on agency scope, servitude use, business records, trustee conflicts, and similar doctrines.
Evelyn Ellison directs her delivery driver to make an unscheduled stop at a personal errand location while completing routes for her courier business. The driver causes an accident during the detour. A court must decide whether the stop fell inside the enterprise of the master when assessing vicarious liability.
Elite Dynamics holds an access easement across land owned by Elemental Pharmaceuticals to reach its manufacturing plant. When the company later installs fiber-optic lines to support expanded operations, the servient owner objects. The court evaluates whether the new use remains reasonably necessary for convenient enjoyment of the enterprise benefited by the servitude.
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Everest Holdings prepares an internal accident report after a warehouse incident. The document follows the company's regular safety protocol but is created with an eye toward possible litigation. A court determines whether the report qualifies as a record made in the regular conduct of the enterprise's business for hearsay purposes.
Edward Everett, trustee of a family trust, considers investing trust assets in Elysium Media, a media company in which his spouse holds a controlling stake. The investment could affect his judgment. The statute requires disclosure because the company is an enterprise in which a person with a significant interest in the trustee holds an interest.
Elena Estrada's utility company runs advertisements promoting energy conservation to its customers. A state commission bans the ads to promote energy conservation. The court applies intermediate scrutiny to the restriction on speech by the regulated enterprise.
Elliot Edmonds purchases a new vehicle whose paint defect was concealed by the manufacturer. A jury awards substantial punitive damages. The court reviews the award's ratio to compensatory damages to ensure it does not arbitrarily punish the enterprise's conduct.
The phrase identifies the master's regular business activity. An act falls outside the enterprise when it is not entrusted to any servant or lies beyond the master's ordinary operations, helping courts decide whether respondeat superior applies.
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The holder may adjust frequency and intensity of use over time to take advantage of technological developments or normal development of the dominant estate or enterprise, provided the change remains reasonably necessary and does not cause unreasonable damage.
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The exception covers only records made in the regular conduct of the enterprise's primary business. Documents created mainly in anticipation of litigation fall outside that regular conduct even if prepared according to company practice.
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…475 U. S. 387, 395 (1986). Because the statements are made while the declarant and the accused are partners in an illegal enterprise, the statements are unlikely to be false and their admission "actually furthers the Confrontation Clause's very mission' which is to advance the accuracy of the truth-determining process…