Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ Philosophy may have gained by the attempts in recent years to look through the fiction to the fact and to generalize corporations, partnerships, and other groups into a single conception. But to generalize is to omit, and, in this instance, to omit one characteristic of the complete corporation, as called into being under modern statutes, that is most important in business and law. A leading purpose of such statutes and of those who act under them is to interpose a nonconductor, through which, in matters of contract, it is impossible to see the men behind. ”

“ That, the petitioner contends, is too broad, while the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Company contends that, as against the Hall family and anyone selling their safes or standing in their shoes, it has the sole right to the very valuable name 'Hall' upon or for the sale of safes.
It no longer is disputed that the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Company is the successor of the original Hall's Safe & Lock Company, or that it has the right to use the word 'Hall.' But it is denied that it has the exclusive right. ”

“ Both sons resigned and left the service of the corporation August 1, 1896, and both were released, in writing, from their obligations under their contract. The next month the sons organized an Ohio corporation, under the name of Hall's Safe Company, which is party to the litigation in the sixth circuit, but is not a party here. The petitioner, Donnell, had been a selling agent of the original company, and afterwards of the company that bought it out, having a place in Chicago, with a large sign, 'Hall's Safes,' on the front. ”