When May Tort Plaintiff ‘Pierce Corporate Veil’ to Pursue Recovery from a ‘Parent’ Corporation?
Kimberly Dombroski v. WellPoint, Inc., et al., Case no. 2007-2162 7th District Court of Appeals (Belmont County) ISSUE: In order to have standing to sue a “parent” company with whom a plaintiff has no direct contractual relationship for a breach of contract by a subsidiary corporation controlled by the parent, must a plaintiff prove that the parent used its control over the subsidiary to “commit fraud or an illegal act,” or is the requirement for piercing the corporate veil also met by proof that the parent company used its control over the subsidiary to commit “unjust or inequitable acts” that did not rise to the level of fraud or an illegal act? BACKGROUND: Under the law of Ohio and other states, a business entity that is organized as a corporation is regarded as a separate legal “person” that is responsible for its own financial obligations and actions, with the result that the owners (individual stockholders or a “parent” company) of a corporation have very limited liability for th
