Decline of the Legal Personality? Transfer of Liability and Piercing the Corporate Veil in Hungarian Private Law Cover Image

Niedergang der Rechtspersönlichkeit? Übergang der Haftung und Durchgriffshaftung im ungarischen Privatrecht
Decline of the Legal Personality? Transfer of Liability and Piercing the Corporate Veil in Hungarian Private Law

Author(s): Tekla Papp
Subject(s): Civil Law
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: transfer of liability; piercing the corporate veil; case law

Summary/Abstract: What is the difference between piercing the veil and the transfer of liability? We refer to some criteria:– it can be attached to existent, operating artificial persons;– it can not only be expanded to business associations but also to any artificial person that has a membership (e.g. society, association, grouping);– there is no express rule on this in the act;– the characteristics of the liability (legal basis, extent, nature) are clear and unambiguous;– the institution in question is not only formed for the “dominant member”;– we can actually move over the separate legal entity of the artificial person since the member committing an abuse with the legal personality (and not with his limited liability) of the existing artificial person has joint and several liability with the artificial person towards a third person, and we do not only transfer the liability – in absence of liability of the company – to the abuser member;– there is no dogmatic problem of “limited liability of the member” because this institution can also be applied in case of artificial persons with subsidiary, unlimited liability of the members (e.g. grouping);– it does not depend on the claim made by the creditor during the winding up procedure;– the rules referring to lapse in case of damages in the Civil Code shall be applied; there is no problem with time dimension;– in the case of the realization of the above detailed special elements, the piercing of the veil is suitable for applying it as a general clause and for legal development (see above: the newer case law).

  • Issue Year: 4/2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 65-79
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: German