Corporate employees cannot assert the privilege against self-incrimination on behalf of their employer. Decided March 12, 1906 (argued 1906). Opinion of the Court: Henry Billings Brown → go there Dissenting: Brewer. Topic: Businesses/Corporations/Contracts. Hale v. Henkel, 201 U.S. 43 (1906), was a major United States Supreme Court case in which the Court established the power of a federal grand jury engaged in an investigation into corporate malfeasance to require the corporation in question to surrender its records. Wiki link