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Writ of execution on a company itself and/or intellutual property/investments,etc..

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What is the name of your state? FL

If you have a judgement against a company who claims it has nothing to pay the judgement with.

Can a Writ of execution be done on a company itself and/or its intellutual property/investments,etc ?
 


QUOTE="PayrollHRGuy, post: 3683580, member: 674052"]

Read this. https://dos.myflorida.com/sunbiz/forms/judgment-lien/collect-judgment/



and this

www.clerk.org › pdf › CollectSatisfyJudgmentInfo

How can I collect my Judgment - Clerk.org


[/QUOTE]


Thank you Mr. PayrollHRguy for those great links.

I don't see anything that address a company itself and/or its intellutual property/investments,etc by name.

I read " The sheriff’s department can seize:

  • Personal property: movable things (e.g., cars, horses, boats, furniture, jewelry) owned by the debtor.
  • Real property: land and buildings owned by the debtor." and " If you can locate and describe any property owned by the defendant, real or personal, you can secure a Writ of Execution "
"If you can locate and describe any property owned by the defendant, real or personal, you can secure a Writ of Execution "

Maybe this is just what the sheriff is capable of taking. What about bank accounts, stocks, bonds, etc...?

Would this fall under " personal property"? I'm looking for a certificate or document saying that I have claim to the company assets(if any exist)

Is intellectual property, investment, rights, etc... Considered personal property of a company?
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
I believe personal property is limited to tangible items as far as collecting a judgment in Florida. Does the debtor company have an office with "stuff"?
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
What is the name of your state? FL

If you have a judgement against a company who claims it has nothing to pay the judgement with.

Can a Writ of execution be done on a company itself and/or its intellutual property/investments,etc ?
I don't know quite what you mean by "done on a company itself". You can use your judgment to attach any assets or income of the company that is not exempt from attachment under federal and state laws. So you could attach bank accounts, accounts receivable, inventory, furniture, real estate, royalties, etc.
 

zddoodah

Active Member
If you have a judgement against a company who claims it has nothing to pay the judgement with.

Can a Writ of execution be done on a company itself and/or its intellutual property/investments,etc ?
This question is oddly worded, and I have no idea what it might mean to "do" a writ of execution "on a company itself." You might want to clarify that.

With that said, if a judgment debtor owns intellectual property or investments, those assets may be available to satisfy the judgment. Obviously, specifics regarding the intellectual property and investments matter greatly, so you might want to provide some details about your situation.

What about bank accounts, stocks, bonds, etc...?
What about them? A bank account can be levied on. Depending on how the stocks and bonds are held, they may also be levied on. Keep in mind that most folks who own stocks and bonds own them via a brokerage account.

Would this fall under " personal property"? I'm looking for a certificate or document saying that I have claim to the company assets(if any exist)

Is intellectual property, investment, rights, etc... Considered personal property of a company?
Real property is land and structures permanently attached thereto (e.g., a home or office building (although a person's home is generally fully exempt from enforcement of a civil money judgment in Florida)).

Personal property is any property that isn't real property, except...

Some folks use a third class of property called intangible property, which would be things like intellectual property and other things that you can't physically hold or touch.
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
Some folks use a third class of property called intangible property, which would be things like intellectual property and other things that you can't physically hold or touch.
I'd put it differently. Personal property is sometimes broken down into two subcategories — tangible personal property and intangible personal property. The former are the things you can touch, hold, and move around like cars, furniture, TV sets, computers and cell phones, etc. The latter are things of value that you cannot directly touch, like intellectual property, money in a bank account (as opposed to actual cash), etc. For most purposes there is not much that hangs on whether an item is tangible or intangible personal property.
 

quincy

Senior Member
You cannot use a writ of execution for intangible intellectual property to satisfy a debt.
 
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I believe personal property is limited to tangible items as far as collecting a judgment in Florida. Does the debtor company have an office with "stuff"?
He used to but basically sold all the stuff to himself, friends and family for pennies on the dollar. The Intellectual property, company investments and company name has a lot more value then the stuff inside the office.

I have seen lawyers on youtube talking about going after people bank accounts during a default judgement. Is there another process besides writ of execution used to go after the intangable assets such as bank accounts, Intellectual property or even the company itself? Perhaps on the federal level?
 

quincy

Senior Member
You could request that the court appoint a receiver to acquire and sell the intellectual property, this if the debtor will not voluntarily transfer his rights in his IP to satisfy the debt.
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
He used to but basically sold all the stuff to himself, friends and family for pennies on the dollar. The Intellectual property, company investments and company name has a lot more value then the stuff inside the office.

I have seen lawyers on youtube talking about going after people bank accounts during a default judgement. Is there another process besides writ of execution used to go after the intangable assets such as bank accounts, Intellectual property or even the company itself? Perhaps on the federal level?
Generally to attach assets that are in the hands of others (like funds in a bank account, investments held in a brokerage, etc) you send a writ of garnishment directing the third party to turn over the property of the judgment debtor that the third party has in its possession. You cannot take the stock (for a corporation) or member interest of the company (if it's a LLC) unless you have a judgment against the owner of the company because the stock or member interest in the company is not an asset of the company, it is an asset of the individual who owns the stock or member interest.

When the company basically gives away its property (including selling it for pennies on the dollar) to the owner's relatives and friends after the debt to you was known the company there is a way to get those assets back by using the state's fraudulent conveyance statute.

For the most part Federal law does not regulate attachment of assets for private debts aside from exempting a few assets/income of individuals from attachment. For example, federal law prevents creditors from attaching Social Security benefits, welfare benefits, and most pensions.
 
I believe personal property is limited to tangible items as far as collecting a judgment in Florida. Does the debtor company have an office with "stuff"?
Information on wikipeida does not appear to say that its limited to tangible. There are exceptions said to be things like " social security income in a bank account, some states may protect Individual retirement account(IRA), and unemployment income. However I don't see anything about forbidding against the keys to the entire company.

The company value(if any) is in intellectual property not its old office furniture. There is nothing of value left behind.

A writ of execution (also known as an execution) is a court order granted to put in force a judgment of possession obtained by a plaintiff from a court.[1] When issuing a writ of execution, a court typically will order a sheriff or other similar official to take possession of property owned by a judgment debtor. Such property will often then be sold in a sheriff's sale and the proceeds remunerated to the plaintiff in partial or full satisfaction of the judgment. It is generally considered preferable for the sheriff simply to take possession of money from the defendant's bank account. If the judgment debtor owns real property, the judgment creditor can record the execution to "freeze" the title until the execution is satisfied.

Generally, execution is unnecessary for defendants who pay verdicts against themselves voluntarily. However, some defendants ignore judgments against them, and thereby force plaintiffs to employ writs of execution to actually enforce judgments.

In the United States, not all assets are subject to execution. For example, Social Security income that resides in a bank account is exempt from a levy on a debtor's bank account. Many states also protect an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) from execution as well as unemployment income, but the amount that is exempt may be limited.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writ_of_execution
 
I don't know quite what you mean by "done on a company itself". You can use your judgment to attach any assets or income of the company that is not exempt from attachment under federal and state laws. So you could attach bank accounts, accounts receivable, inventory, furniture, real estate, royalties, etc.
The " Done on the company itself" means that you transfer ownership of the entire company. Imaging you have a large judgement against a company. The company itself claims not to have any money to pay off the judgement. Why not take the company the same say that banks are able to take a car, boats, houses or even private jets which the owner fails to make payments?

The value of my judgement probably far exceeds the value of the entire company

I hope that answers your question.
 
This question is oddly worded, and I have no idea what it might mean to "do" a writ of execution "on a company itself." You might want to clarify that.

With that said, if a judgment debtor owns intellectual property or investments, those assets may be available to satisfy the judgment. Obviously, specifics regarding the intellectual property and investments matter greatly, so you might want to provide some details about your situation.
Sorry, English was never a strong subject for me.

I want to take ownership of the company sort of how a bank may take ownership of a car, boat,house, plane,etc.... in which money has been loan and payments have been missed. Is that in the realm of possibilities?

Situation is I have a large judgement against a company who owner has abandoned the company and likely the value of my judgement far exceeds the value of the company. So can the courts be used to basically do a hostile takeover of the company? [/QUOTE]

What about them? A bank account can be levied on. Depending on how the stocks and bonds are held, they may also be levied on. Keep in mind that most folks who own stocks and bonds own them via a brokerage account.


Real property is land and structures permanently attached thereto (e.g., a home or office building (although a person's home is generally fully exempt from enforcement of a civil money judgment in Florida)).

Personal property is any property that isn't real property, except...

Some folks use a third class of property called intangible property, which would be things like intellectual property and other things that you can't physically hold or touch.
is the intellectual property and other intangibles fair game to get in a post judgement writ of execution?
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
The " Done on the company itself" means that you transfer ownership of the entire company. Imaging you have a large judgement against a company. The company itself claims not to have any money to pay off the judgement. Why not take the company the same say that banks are able to take a car, boats, houses or even private jets which the owner fails to make payments?
You cannot use the judgment to take ownership of the company like you can to take company assets like a car or bank account because the company is owned by other people or entities. So unless you have a judgment against those persons or entities you cannot take what they own to satisfy your judgment. For example, suppose you have a judgment against XYZ corporation. XYZ's sole shareholder is John Smith. John Smith is thus the owner of XYZ Corp. You don't have a judgment against John Smith. So you can't take the stock John Smith has in XYZ Corp because you need a judgment against John Smith to reach his assets, which includes his stock in XYZ Corp.

Now, if the company were to go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy or receivership it may be possible for the creditors to gain control of the corporation or LLC, but those proceedings can be expensive and time consuming and often not worthwhile to do when it's just a fairly small company involved. So for the most part you take the assets of the company that you can fairly easily reach without a lot of expense and then you may just have to give up on the rest. It sucks when that happens, and it happens a lot with small businesses, but that's the practical reality of it.
 
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