corporate entity
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 287 U.S. 410 - Burnet v. Clark · 1932Most cited · 635 citing opinions
A corporation and its stockholders are generally to be treated as separate entities. Only under exceptional circumstances not present here—can the difference be disregarded.
How the Supreme Court has restated “corporate entity”
Each Supreme Court definition of “corporate entity,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “corporate entity”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “corporate entity” — 1,996 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1932–1946
- ORIGINAL
Southern Pacific Company v. Lowe...and Gulf Oil Corp. v. Lewellyn...cannot be regarded as laying down any general rule authorizing disregard of corporate entity in respect of taxation. These cases presented peculiar situations, and were determined upon consideration of them.
Under the general rule for tax purposes, a corporation is an entity distinct from its stockholders, and the circumstances here are not so unusual as to create an exception.
While corporate entities may be disregarded where they are made the implement for avoiding a clear legislative purpose, they will not be disregarded where those in control have deliberately adopted the corporate form in order to secure its advantages and where no violence to the legislative purpose is done by treating the corporate entity as a separate legal person.