Dying corporation - whose responsibility?

[publius]

What is the name of your state? CA

A small corporation that never turned a profit is essentially defunct. It has no assets and no revenues, and is no longer conducting any operations. A much larger corporation got a significant judgment against it, and is trying to conduct post-judgment discovery and enforcement procedures. The small corporation's trial attorney is out of the picture, and there is no money to pay for an attorney for the corporation to appear in these post-judgment actions, or even file for bankruptcy. Who is responsible for answering requests for corporate records on behalf of the corporation? Who is responsible for maintaining the dozen or so file boxes of records? In a situation like this, does the last corporate officer to resign basically get stuck holding the bag, or what?

 

[JETX]

Who is responsible for answering requests for corporate records on behalf of the corporation? Who is responsible for maintaining the dozen or so file boxes of records? In a situation like this, does the last corporate officer to resign basically get stuck holding the bag, or what?

Same answer to all of your questions... the former officer(s) of the corporation are responsible for ALL demands for information served on the corporation.
Read the applicable California Corporations Code regarding liability at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=corp&group=01001-02000&file=2000-2011

 

[JustAPal00]

What is the name of your state? CA

A small corporation that never turned a profit is essentially defunct. It has no assets and no revenues, and is no longer conducting any operations. A much larger corporation got a significant judgment against it, and is trying to conduct post-judgment discovery and enforcement procedures. The small corporation's trial attorney is out of the picture, and there is no money to pay for an attorney for the corporation to appear in these post-judgment actions, or even file for bankruptcy. Who is responsible for answering requests for corporate records on behalf of the corporation? Who is responsible for maintaining the dozen or so file boxes of records? In a situation like this, does the last corporate officer to resign basically get stuck holding the bag, or what?

I had a similar situation several years ago. My corp was dead, but had a lot of debt. I had to do a corp chapter 7 to end it. I paid out of my pocket.

 

[publius]

Same answer to all of your questions... the former officer(s) of the corporation are responsible for ALL demands for information served on the corporation.
Read the applicable California Corporations Code regarding liability at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=corp&group=01001-02000&file=2000-2011

Thanks. The sections you link to seem to relate only to dissolution proceedings, though. It looks to me like in order to dissolve a corporation, you need to have enough assets to cover "all the known debts and liabilities." What happens if the corporation has no assets? It can't even afford to file bankruptcy to have its debts discharged.

Also, a corporation can't appear pro se, right? So if a corporation is ordered to appear for a court hearing (and again, the corporation has no assets whatsoever), are the officers personally liable for hiring counsel to represent the corporation?