Q. How does a lawsuit work against a suspended corporation?
A. You’ve posted in the Small Claims forum. If you filed in Small Claims, you’re probably asking this question a bit late because (1) the hearing date is approaching fast and (2) how to designate your defendant is something you should have figured out before filing or the whole thing could be a waste of time.
(Now that should be enough criticism but there’s also a question: are you really traveling from Texas to California for a Small Claims case, or is the company authorized to do business in Texas and you have a jurisdictional nexus there? If you have to sue and enforce in California, I hope it’s worth the time and money.)
To answer your question, I’d suggest that you apply to the Court for a continuance; you need more time. Then write to the California Secretary of State to get a certified record of the corporate status – the Court can disregard what you pulled off of the Web, even if it was from the SofS website. Amend your claim to designate the corporation as “Acme, Inc., a suspended corporation”. Then amend it further to show the owner as a defendant – e.g. John Doe dba Acme, Inc.”. Now you’ll have to serve two defendants.
While a California corporation is in a suspended status but still continuing to operate, the owner/president is regarded as doing business as a sole proprietorship.
Remember that there can always be a corporate “revivor” before the hearing, and then your claim against the owner will fail (unless this entire incident occurred while the company was suspended), but the likelihood is that the company is going defunct. It’s usually cheaper and easier to start a new company than to cure a suspension.
(If you had some other issue in mind by your question, you’ll have to clarify.)
