Fairbanks v. Chambers’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 21 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently April 2015 · most notably Brown ex rel. Brown v. Syntex Laboratories, Inc. (1985), Terre Du Lac Ass'n v. Terre Du Lac, Inc. (1987)
4 federal appellate · 21 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 May Department Stores Co. v. Union E.L. P. Co. · Lange v. Baker · Zimmerman v. Associates Discount Corporation · Sampson Distributing Co. v. Cherry · Mansfield v. Smithie
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Not only must the corporation be controlled and influenced by one or a few persons, in addition, the evidence must establish that the corporate cloak was used as a subterfuge to defeat public convenience, to justify wrong or to perpetuate fraud.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Although ... § 351.110(1) does require a corporate name to contain the word “corporation,” “company,” “incorporated,” or “limited” or an abbreviation of one of those words, decisions interpreting that section relate only to the secretary of state’s discretion in establishing corporate names and the ability of similarly named corporations to challenge the name as confusing. The section has never been interpreted to require that the corporate name must appear on all signage, letterheads, company forms, phone listings, and the like. Moreover, assuming arguendo that the section has that meaning, its violation could not be said to automatically give rise to anything more than those sanctions which the state may choose to impose. Certainly the loss of all the protections and advantages of the corporate form (among them the fundamental protection of limited liability) cannot be said to spring spontaneously from the failure to comply.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Price v. Aronson“If any intercorporate affiliation is devised for or is being used to accomplish an improper or unlawful purpose, certainly equity does have the authority to tear down technical legal barriers and reach beyond them to impose liability or grant proper relief. If the purpose is lawful, and fair and equitable to those with whom it is intended to deal, legal forms and relationships should be observed. Men have the right to use legal forms which they believe to be helpful in accomplishing proper purposes. The question should not be merely instrumentality, but instrumentality for what purpose.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.