Doe v. Gelineau

OPINION

FLANDERS, Justice.

When it comes to piercing corporate veils, courts are loath to act like Vlad the Impaler. 1 Indeed, the stakes are too high for courts regularly to disregard the separate legal status of corporations. Because a corporation is an incorporeal, “artificial creature” of the law, Cook v. American Tubing & Webbing Co., 28 R.I. 41, 49, 65 A. 641, 644 (1905), it constitutes “an artificial person distinct and separate from its individual and often changing stockholders.” Vennerbeck & Clase Co. v. Juergens Jewelry Co., 53 R.I. 135, 138, 164 A. 509, 510 (1933). 2 Thus, courts…