University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository
Abstract
Stockholders\u27 exemption from liability for corporate debts is a modern invention. It was not until 18x1 that New York extended that exemption to stockholders in manufacturing corporations.\u27 Massachusetts did not grant it until 1830.2 England did not allow it to stockholders in business and manufacturing cornpanies until I855. s As President Eliot of Harvard has pointed out, this privilege of limited liability is the corporation\u27s most precious characteristic. \u2
