Wage Hearing Appearance

[andrewm]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

I have something of a complex question. I have a wage claim filed in California, which will likely go to hearing in a month or two.

It's against a trust for final wages. The owner of the trust is totally unresponsive; at the initial conference, she didn't show up or answer her phone, and she hasn't responded to mail or email. Instead, the conference was handled by a guy (I'll call him "Bob") because he was available.

The trust does business under numerous different names. "Bob" intends to purchase one of these, uh, sub-companies or whatever. Because the sub-company has no current product, he is managing the day-to-day operations of it until it does so, after which he will purchase it. He isn't, however, an employee of the trust. I'm not sure precisely what his status is. He managed me while I worked there, but the paychecks were signed by the trust's owner. At the conference, he announced (after we'd done the "good cause to proceed" thing) that he had no authority to offer settlements.

I suspect he will appear at the hearing and the trust's owner will not. Can I challenge this? Can I challenge subpoenas if he requests them on behalf of the company? Is there some document or form that needs to be filed in order for him to do so? I'm worried that I'll prevail at hearing but the company will appeal based on his lack of standing, tying my money up even longer.

It's worth noting that, at the conference, he asked that mail be sent to the address at which he works, which is not the address at which the owner works. I questioned this in an email to the owner, but as I said she is entirely unresponsive.

What should I do?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?