Corporation or Individual as Defendent?

[DolphinPA]

Washington State. Can an individual (owner) be named as defendent in small claims court action instead of the corporation? The company is out of business. If the corporation must be named as defendent and is out of business is there any advantage to pursuing the case?

We (Plaitiffs) met with the owner of defunct business in small claims court mediation and he refused to continue stating that the defendent should reflect the name of his incorporated company (no longer in business) as opposed to his name which was used. Further mediation is scheduled.

 

[JETX]

If your claim is exclusively against the corporate entity, you can only litigate against them. If your claim includes personal issues against the individual, you can include him as a party, but you would probably need to include both of them.

An individual cannot be held liable for a Corporations defaults, even if the individual is the sole shareholder of the corporation. In order to try to get him responsible, you would have to go into a long and expensive case of "alter ego" and show that the individual used the corporates assets as his own (house payment, groceries, utilities, etc.). This is a long drawn out expensive battle used to 'pierce the corporate veil' and hopefully the court would remove the protection of the corporate name, making the individual responsible.

My suggestion: Before you go into a large amount of time and/or money, do some research and find out what assets the corporation has. This might require you serving a subpoena on the registered agent and asking that he bring forth all records of the corporation and its dissolution (if bankrupt, your debt is probably dead anyway). Look for equipment, furniture, computers, etc. of the corporation for your potential seizure. Then, if needed, get the court to execute on the assets pre-trial to protect them from sale and being lost.