DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE WALSH

1.    Joint stock companies are simply commercial devices for raising

capital, particularly when large sums are required which would normally

be beyond the private means of individuals.  Nevertheless if such a

company fails the ultimate losers are the individual shareholders.

They have the power to liquidate the company even when it is doing

well.  They are the beneficial owners of the assets even though the

legal ownership rests in the legal entity of the body corporate.

2.    While it is true to say that such a body corporate has neither

a soul to be damned nor a body to be beaten, nonetheless, the

shareholders have and the existence of the corporate entity gives no

protection to the shareholders as individuals against the loss in value

of their shares or against criminal or civil liability for their

individual activities in the commercial advancement of the companies.

3.    It appears to me to be anomalous that the defence of human rights

in the field of property, or otherwise, should yield to the

commercially sacred impenetrability of the "corporate veil".

4.    In the present case the fact that the applicants are themselves

bodies corporate does not affect the principle because such bodies are

composed of individuals each of whom has property rights.  Shareholders

may complain of the violation of their own rights and insofar as they

complain of injustice to their corporate image they are in fact seeking

to protect their individual property rights to the extent thereof.

5.    Ordinary joint stock companies are to be distinguished from

special bodies created by statute or by royal grant which may not in

fact have any shareholders.

6.    In my opinion the applicant bodies may be treated as the

collective face of the individual victims.