1. The act or process of uniting; the state of being united.
2. Legislation. The combination into a single statutory measure of various legislative provisions that have previously been scattered in different statutes.
3. Civil procedure. The court-ordered unification of two or more actions, involving the same parties and issues, into a single action resulting in a single judgment or, sometimes, in separate judgments. Fed. R. Civ. P. 42(a).
— Also termed consolidation of actions. Cf. JOINDER; SEVERANCE(2). [Cases: Action 54–59; Federal Civil Procedure
8. C.J.S. Actions §§ 204–219.]
procedural consolidation. See JOINT ADMINISTRATION.
substantive consolidation. Bankruptcy. The merger of two or more bankruptcy cases, usu. pending against the same debtor or related debtors, into one estate for purposes of distributing the assets, usu. resulting in the two estates sharing assets and liabilities, and in the extinguishment of duplicate claims and claims between the debtors. [Cases: Bankruptcy 2084.]
4. The unification of two or more corporations or other organizations by dissolving the existing ones and creating a single new corporation or organization.
— Also termed (with respect to corporations) consolidation of corpo-rations. Cf. MERGER(8). [Cases: Corporations 581. C.J.S. Corporations §§ 792–797.]
5. Corporations. Archaic. A union of the stock, property, or franchises of two or more companies whereby the conduct of their affairs is permanently — or for a long period — put under one management, whether the agreement between them is by lease, sale, or other form of contract, and whether the effect is the dissolution of one, both, or neither of the companies. — consolidate, vb. — consolidatory (k[schwa]n-sol-[schwa]-day-t[schwa]r-ee), adj.
