Hi, just as a pre-text to below info, I am getting a lawyer, but also want to know how to best proceed as a few lawyers have given me different avenues.
Have a company that is an investment corporation (Inc). Has not done bussiness for 8 months now. Company had land in Florida. Hired a builder to build a home, has a contract between builder and company.
House was sold about 2 years ago.
About a year ago, buyer filed complained via lawyer about a few issues with the home.
Company contacted the builder, and builder promised to fix some stuff.
A year later, we get served. Builder is also served for negligence and company is sued for breach of contract (the contract being purchase and sales agreement).
Most things that the plaintiff asserts are absurd but they are there.
For one, there was an option in the contract for an escrow IF some items were not build by closing date. The times were build so escrow never collected. It was a part of the contract. They are asserting that we broke the Contract by not collecting on that escrow? Confusing to me as the items listed as part of the escrow option are complete.
The other thing they are asserting is that the plaintiff though they were buying directly from builder and did not knew of the company existence... pretty clear in the contract who the seller is...
The thing is the company has negative cash flow, does not plan to do anymore investments. In fact prior to the lawsuit the company was going to be dissolved. I guess the issue is that they can try and “pierce the corporate veil” but that would be hard to do from my understanding...
So when contacted a few lawyers some of them said to just default since the company has no money.
Others said we have to answer the complaint.
From my understanding is that what the plaintiff wants is for the company to pay for the lawyer fee because part of the standard sales contract it does state that if either party enter a lawsuit the losing party has to pay for the fees, and this is part of their complaint as that they want their law fees paid.
Anyways, should we fight this (will cost money for lawyer)...
I had a few lawyers really scare me saying that this is going to cost 30-40K... the house is not even worth all that much.
What do you guys think?
Have a company that is an investment corporation (Inc). Has not done bussiness for 8 months now. Company had land in Florida. Hired a builder to build a home, has a contract between builder and company.
House was sold about 2 years ago.
About a year ago, buyer filed complained via lawyer about a few issues with the home.
Company contacted the builder, and builder promised to fix some stuff.
A year later, we get served. Builder is also served for negligence and company is sued for breach of contract (the contract being purchase and sales agreement).
Most things that the plaintiff asserts are absurd but they are there.
For one, there was an option in the contract for an escrow IF some items were not build by closing date. The times were build so escrow never collected. It was a part of the contract. They are asserting that we broke the Contract by not collecting on that escrow? Confusing to me as the items listed as part of the escrow option are complete.
The other thing they are asserting is that the plaintiff though they were buying directly from builder and did not knew of the company existence... pretty clear in the contract who the seller is...
The thing is the company has negative cash flow, does not plan to do anymore investments. In fact prior to the lawsuit the company was going to be dissolved. I guess the issue is that they can try and “pierce the corporate veil” but that would be hard to do from my understanding...
So when contacted a few lawyers some of them said to just default since the company has no money.
Others said we have to answer the complaint.
From my understanding is that what the plaintiff wants is for the company to pay for the lawyer fee because part of the standard sales contract it does state that if either party enter a lawsuit the losing party has to pay for the fees, and this is part of their complaint as that they want their law fees paid.
Anyways, should we fight this (will cost money for lawyer)...
I had a few lawyers really scare me saying that this is going to cost 30-40K... the house is not even worth all that much.
What do you guys think?