How does a Plaintiff pierce the corporate veil?
A Plaintiff, during a lawsuit, can assert various theories to the fact finder that request the Courts not place liability solely on the corporation but on the others. Those theories are: • Alter Ego Theory: The Courts disregard the corporate entity when there exists such unity between the corporation and the individual that the corporation ceases to be separate and when holding only the corporation liable would promote injustice. The Texas Supreme Court has stated that the evidence may include the degree to which the corporate formalities have been followed and corporate and individual property have been kept separately, the amount of financial interest, ownership and control the individual maintains over the corporation and whether the corporation has been used for personal purposes. • The Emergence of a “Sham to Perpetrate a Fraud”: Tort claimants and contract creditors need only show the breach of some legal or equitable duty which the law declares fraudulent because of its tendency
