THE CORPORATION AS A LEGAL ENTITY WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE LAW OF MARYLAND BY JAMES TREAT CARTER A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Board of University Studies of The Johns Hopkins the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1919 BALTIMORE PREFACE. It is the aim of this study to examine the theories of the corporate entity in American Law in the light of concrete facts set forth in judicial opinions. In some measure, it is believed, the intricacies of the philosophical discussions that have agitated legal and political thinkers of Europe may be avoided in this country and thus a more settled condition in the administration of justice, and greater certainty in the status of the corporation as a legal entity in political society, may be thereby attained. The present study grew out of an essay originally presented as a thesis at the Law School of the University of Maryland, on the subject, "The Extent to Which the Courts Will Disregard the Fiction of Corporate Existence and Deal With the Natural Persons Composing the Corporation." At the suggestion of Dr. W. W. Willoughby, Professor of Political Science at The Johns Hopkins University, and under his guidance, the study was broadened to embrace the philosophical and legal aspects of the corporate entity. The material has been gathered from legal reports and treatises in the Baltimore Bar Library, the Law Library of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Congressional Library in Washington. For encouragement and suggestions, I am indebted to the Honorable Morris A. Soper, Chief Judge of the Baltimore Supreme Bench, and Lecturer on Corporation Law at the University of Maryland; Dr. Arthur C. Millspaugh of the Staff of Economic Advisers in the Office of the Foreign Trade Adviser, State Department, Washington; Mr. George P. Bagby, General Attorney of the Western Maryland Railroad Company and editor of the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland; and Mr. Joseph C. France. In the preparation of statistical material I acknow |