England and Wales: Separate legal personality upheld

In Sheldon Adelson v Associated Newspapers Ltd. [2007] EWHC 3028 (QB), it was argued that a company could recover damages for libel in respect of other companies within the same corporate group, and that there was no need for the companies suffering loss to be made parties to the litigation.

The trial judge, Eady J., rejected these arguments, noting that companies are individual legal entities and that companies cannot recover losses incurred by another. His Lordship also rejected the contention that the Court of Appeal had suggested otherwise in related litigation (see
[2007] EWCA Civ 701, noted in The WLR Daily).