Opinion ID: 1673320
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Claim Against American Pioneer Corporation

Text: American Pioneer Corporation argues that it could only be held liable as the owner of the stock of American Pioneer Life Insurance Company if Ayres had shown that American Pioneer Life was a mere instrumentality of American Pioneer Corporation, and insists that there was a total lack of proof on this point. The principle of this argument is correct, but the allegation as to the lack of proof is not. Ayres introduced the deposition of Grant C. Hunt, who was president of American Pioneer Life at the time of trial and who until shortly before had also been vice president of American Pioneer Corporation. He stated that in those capacities he ran the day-to-day operations of both corporations. Mr. Hunt's deposition spoke of regular transfers of funds between American Pioneer Corporation and American Pioneer Life and a complete overlap of the executive committees of the two corporations. Not only do we find that Hunt's testimony presented at least a scintilla of evidence that American Pioneer Life was the alter ego of American Pioneer Corporation, but we also find that American Pioneer Corporation did not preserve any error on this issue. It made a general motion for directed verdict on the ground that there was no evidence connecting it to the transaction, but in view of the alter ego allegation of the complaint and the evidence tending to prove that allegation, the court did not err in denying the motion.