This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2001-09-04 |
QUISUMBING, J. |
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| A corporation, upon coming into existence, is invested by law with a personality separate and distinct from those persons composing it as well as from any other legal entity to which it may be related.[12] By this attribute, a stockholder may not, generally, be made to answer for acts or liabilities of the said corporation, and vice versa.[13] This separate and distinct personality is, however, merely a fiction created by law for convenience and to promote the ends of justice.[14] For this reason, it may not be used or invoked for ends subversive to the policy and purpose behind its creation[15] or which could not have been intended by law to which it owes its being.[16] This is particularly true when the fiction is used to defeat public convenience, justify wrong, protect fraud, defend crime,[17] confuse legitimate legal or judicial issues,[18] perpetrate deception or otherwise circumvent the law.[19] This is likewise true where the corporate entity is being used as an alter ego, adjunct, or business conduit for the sole benefit of the stockholders or of another corporate entity.[20] In all these cases, the notion of corporate entity will be pierced or disregarded with reference to the particular transaction involved.[21] | |||||