Federal Judiciary

Butler America LLC v. Aviation Assurance Co. (Cal. Ct. App. - Sept. 29, 2020)

By Shaun Martin

Justice Gilbert starts this opinion by saying:  "Alter egos of a judgment debtor appeal an order amending the judgment to add them as judgment debtors. We affirm. A judgment debtor with an empty shell is easy to crack."

Which might well be true as a legal matter.  It's fairly easy to add an alter ego to a judgment when there are "empty shells" involved.

But, practically, getting actual money from the debtors remains -- if you'll pardon the analogy -- a tougher nut to crack.

Like here.  Sure, they successfully add the alter egos to the judgment.  But as far as I can tell, anyway, they still haven't gotten actual money.

Which is the part that actually matters.

But shell first, money later, I guess.

That's the theory, anyway.

Full post as published by California Appellate Report on September 29, 2020 (boomark / email).