Also known as: entities · legal person · juridical person
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An organization that possesses a legal identity separate from its members or owners.
Eclipse Manufacturing receives a deposition notice in a contract dispute. The notice names the company as deponent and lists specific topics with reasonable particularity. Eclipse designates its operations manager to testify about information known to the organization.
Elliot Edmonds shows signs of diminished capacity and faces financial exploitation. His lawyer consults a state agency that can initiate protective proceedings. The agency agrees to seek appointment of a conservator on Elliot's behalf.
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Enigma Technologies fails to observe corporate formalities and remains undercapitalized. Its sole shareholder commingles personal and corporate funds. A judgment creditor demonstrates that treating the corporation as separate would sanction injustice and reaches the shareholder's assets.
Elite Dynamics, a defendant in a contract action, maintains its principal place of business in the Northern District. The company is subject to personal jurisdiction there. Venue lies in that district under the statute governing entity defendants.
Echelon Security offers financing for residential purchases. It denies loans to applicants based on national origin. The denied applicants sue the company under the statute prohibiting discrimination by entities in real-estate transactions.
A state environmental agency issues a permit bearing its official seal. The document is offered in evidence. No extrinsic proof of authenticity is required because the seal purports to belong to a political subdivision of a state.
The notice must describe the matters for examination with reasonable particularity. The organization then designates one or more persons to testify on its behalf about information known or reasonably available to it.
The lawyer may consult with entities that can protect a client with diminished capacity who faces substantial harm and cannot act in his own interest. Seeking appointment of a guardian is also permitted in appropriate cases.
A plaintiff must show unity of interest such that separate personalities no longer exist, including commingling of funds, failure to maintain formalities, and undercapitalization. Circumstances must also exist where respecting the corporate form would sanction fraud or injustice.
An entity is deemed to reside in any judicial district where it is subject to personal jurisdiction with respect to the action. For a plaintiff entity, residence is only in the district of its principal place of business.
…the centuries-old doctrine of coverture, a married man and woman were treated by the State as a single, male-dominated legal entity. See 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 430 (1765). As women gained legal, political, and property rights, and as society began to understand that women have their own…