lifting the (corporate) veil

in company law, the court's refusal to apply the normal rule that a corporation is a different legal person from its members: Salomon v . Salomon [1897] AC 22. Instances where this has been done are:

(1) where a group of companies is an economic entity, see DHN Food Distributors v . Tower Hamlets [1976] 3 All ER 462 and Woolfson v . SRC 1978 SC (HL) 90; and

(2) where there is illegality, see Daimler Co. v. Continental Tyre and Rubber Co. [1916] 2 AC 307.

Directors who may be members are not protected by the veil in some statutory cases:

(1) where the membership of the company has fallen beneath the statutory minimum;

(2) where the company trades without having received the appropriate certificate from the registrar;

(3) where a bill of exchange is signed by an officer of the company, which does not bear the company's full name, see Ratsanjan Pistachio Promotions Group v . Reis [1990] BCC 730;

(4) where under the Insolvency Act 1986 the directors are personally liable for wrongful trading.