C M Corporation v. Oberer Development Company’s Empirical Analysis
631 F.2d 536 · 1980
Citation profile
12 federal appellate · 2 district · 7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently July 2023 · most notably 86 Ill. 2d 188 - Main Bank of Chicago v. Baker (1981), Pepsi-Cola Metropolitan Bottling Co. v. Checkers, Inc. (1985)
12 federal appellate · 2 district · 7 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Bornstein · Taylor v. Standard Gas & Electric Co. · Dewitt Truck Brokers, Inc. v. W. Ray Flemming Fruit Co. · Kathryn E. Steven, Administratrix of the Estate of George A. Steven, Deceased v. Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corporation · Taylor v. Standard Gas & Electric Co.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) The parent corporation owns all or most of the capital stock of the subsidiary. (b) The parent and subsidiary corporations have common directors or officers. (c) The parent corporation finances the subsidiary. (d) The parent corporation subscribes to all of the capital stock of the subsidiary or otherwise causes its incorporation. (e) The subsidiary has grossly inadequate capital. (f) The parent corporation pays the salaries and other expenses or losses of the subsidiary. (g) The subsidiary has substantially no business except with the parent corporation or no assets except those conveyed to it by the parent corporation. (h) In the papers of the parent corporation or in the statements of its officers, the subsidiary is described as a department or division of the parent corporation, or its business or financial responsibility is referred to as the parent corporation’s own. (i) The parent corporation uses the property of the subsidiary as its own. (j) The directors or executives of the subsidiary do not act independently in the interest of the subsidiary but take their orders from the parent corporation in the latter’s interest. (k) The formal legal requirements of the subsidiary are not observed.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In Turner, this court held that a parent corporation would be responsible for the obligations of its subsidiary when the subsidiary has become its mere instrumentality. In order to establish that a parent should be held liable for the obligations of its subsidiary, three elements must be proved: “control by the parent to such a degree that the subsidiary has become its mere instrumentality; fraud or wrong by the parent through its subsidiary, e. g., torts, violation of a statute or stripping the subsidiary of its assets; and unjust loss or injury to the claimant, such as insolvency of the subsidiary.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is true that when this action was filed, [the controlled corporation] was insolvent. But no evidence was presented to show why [it] became insolvent. If the assets of [the controlled corporation] were raided by [the controlling corporation] to make [the controlled corporation] insolvent, or if some fraud were perpetrated by [an arm of the controlling corporation] to make the [controlled corporation] insolvent, then an action to pierce [the controlled corporation’s] veil might very well be justified.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.