Macaura v Northern Assurance Co. Ltd.

(1925)

Members have no interest in a company's

property . Property of company belongs

to it and not to its members.

The owner of a timber estate sold all

the timber to a company which was owned

almost solely by him. He was the

company's largest creditor. He insured

the timber against fire, but in his own

name. After the timber was destroyed by

fire the insurance company refused the

claim because the timber was owned by

the company, and that because the

company was a separate legal entity, it

did not need to pay Mr Macaura any

money.

Principle of Law dealt in the case

Company as a separate legal entity .

Lifting the veil of ownership and

corporate as a legal separate entity

Business Impact

A person with complete control over the

company has no property interest in the

assets used in the company's business

and owned by the company .Business of a

subsidiary company is not the business

of a controlling shareholder( the parent

company). Thus a distinction between

private and corporate assets must be

strictly maintained. A blurring of

corporate and private assets or moneys

often leads to unfortunate consequences.

CIPLA vs ROCHE (2009)

In February 2007,Roche along with

Pfizer (as a joint applicant), claimed

that it had been granted a patent for

erlotinib The patented product, which

Roche introduced onto the Indian market

was marketed under the brand name

TARCEVA. In December 2007 and January

2008, Indian newspapers reported Ciplas

plan to launch a generic version of

erlotinib Soon after that, Roche

commenced patent infringement

proceedings.

Ciplas Defense & Counterclaim

Other cases
The Moonacre ([1992] 2 Lloyd Rep 501)

S, had bought a vessel and insured it in

his name, but registered it in the name

of company, R. The boat was destroyed by

a fire. The insurers argued that S had

no insurable interest in the vessel,

albeit by agreement with R he was

entitled to . .

http://swarb.co.uk/macaura-v-northern-

assurance-company-limited-hl-1925/
FFG