nominal plaintiff
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 396 U.S. 531 - Ross v. Bernhard · 1970Most cited · 2,391 citing opinions
The claim pressed by the stockholder against directors or third parties is not his own but the corporation's. The corporation is a necessary party to the action; without it the case cannot proceed. Although named a defendant, it is the real party in interest, the stockholder being at best the nominal plaintiff. The proceeds of the action belong to the corporation and it is bound by the result of the suit.
How often courts cite the case defining “nominal plaintiff”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “nominal plaintiff” — 2,354 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case 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.