Lecture 2 2024 UFS Case Law PDF

Learning unit 2 Legal personality Lifting of the corporate veil Types of companies Formation T: +27(0)51 401 9111 | [email protected] | www.ufs.ac.za  LECTURE 2 LEGAL PERSONALITY Ex parte Gore and Others NNO 2013 (3) SA 382 (WCC) Legal personality — Separate identity Companies Act...

Learning unit 2 Legal personality Lifting of the corporate veil Types of companies Formation T: +27(0)51 401 9111 | [email protected] | www.ufs.ac.za  LECTURE 2 LEGAL PERSONALITY Ex parte Gore and Others NNO 2013 (3) SA 382 (WCC) Legal personality — Separate identity Companies Act 71 of 2008, s 20(9) = Statutory basis for disregarding corporate personality Separate identity — common-law doctrine of 'piercing corporate veil' Case law considered and principles restated Supplementing (not substituting) common-law doctrine of piercing corporate veil = Supplemented (not substituted) by introduction of statutory basis for disregarding corporate personality Ex parte Gore and Others NNO 2013 (3) SA 382 (WCC) Remedy available whenever illegitimate use of concept of juristic personality adversely affecting third party in way that reasonably should not be countenanced In instant case, conduct of controllers of companies who treated group in way not drawing proper distinction between separate personalities of constituent members, within ambit of provision Meaning of undefined term 'any interested person' who may apply for such relief: Person having direct and sufficient interest in relief sought Centaur Mining South Africa (Pty) Ltd v Cloete Murray 2023 (1) SA 499 (GJ)  Section 20(9): “It gives a court the power to make a declaration and then to make any further order that the court considers appropriate, clearly having regard to the declaration in terms of s 20(9). I am of the view that, if the facts justify piercing the corporate veil, the court is empowered to grant appropriate relief … The provisions of s 20(9) allows the court to integrate or collapse the entities and to structure its order with further orders it considers appropriate. ‘(A)ppropriate means suitable or right for the situation or occasion.’ Or ‘suitable proper’.”