Suing my ex-landlord who does business as an LLC. Because he was haphazard in whether we dealt with him as an individual (the rent checks were made out to him but the lease is under and the property is owned by the LLC) or his LLC*, I served the business at it’s mailing address via CM/RRR. Of course since it is a mailbox service, the clerk there signed for it and not the landlord. I also had him served as an individual at his house however the sheriff’s department screwed up, went to the wrong address and never served him personally. The case is Monday so no time to get proper service. The clerk of the court recommended we do an Alias Notice.
What the hell is an Alias Notice?
Is that done before Monday, Monday before we are due in court or while we are in front of the Judge?
Yes, my first motion in court will be to disallow corporate shielding because of this and let the judge decide who the respondent is as in who will owe us money.
An alias notice is an alternative summons issued to a defendant on whom service of the original summons was not perfected. It may mean something entirely different in your jurisdiction.
In my jurisdiction, if you’re suing the LLC, you only need to serve the LLC’s registered agent. You don’t need to serve the members individually unless you have separate claims against them in their personal capacities.
FYI, you only get to pierce the corporate veil if the corporate defendant is insolvent or otherwise unable to pay a judgment. You can’t just show up in court and demand to sue the LLC’s members right off the bat.
IAAL, but IANAL licensed in your jurisdiction, this is not legal advice, blah blah blah.
But the registered agent never signed it. The Mailbox Etc. clerk did.
I don’t know that it is piercing the corporate veil so much as who is responsible to payif I pay the landlord the rent checks made out to him but the lease was written by Slumlord, LLC.
Again, I don’t know what jurisdiction you’re in, but in every one I’m familiar with the RA address cannot be a post office box for exactly that reason.
I presume the mail piece wasn’t sent restricted delivery (and I presume your unnamed state allows for service by certified mail, return receipt requested).
Given that the landlord took checks made out to him personally v. the company, I’d feel free to sue him as well. He in effect pierced the corporate veil by accepting the dough made payable to himself. (I assume you have canceled checks that don’t list him endorsing the check over to the LLC.)
“… however the sheriff’s department screwed up, went to the wrong address and never served him personally.”
Then he was never properly served (and I gather this is small claims court, since you don’t mention his filing any response).
“2) Is that done before Monday, Monday before we are due in court or while we are in front of the Judge?”
This question doesn’t make a lot of sense. If you’re asking us how far in advance of court the rules of procedure may indicate you need to serve someone to have effective service of process, you’re expecting too much.
Ultimately, we can’t know if your case will be dismissed because the defendant knows to indicate it/they weren’t properly served. You may have to start again from scratch (assuming you didn’t wait until statute of limitations was almost up before filing).
An “alias notice” is an attempt to serve notice properly, perhaps the details of which may be contested at the court…
That is, it requires the court attendance, but the court may well understand that the defendant is not ready to say anything at all due to short notice… depending on the circumstances of the failure to serve the original notice.
It avoids the situation of the defendant saying “I didn’t appear first time because appearing would be taken as proof I was served notice properly, but I wasn’t!”
Answering an alias notice, the defendant can say “I only received the alias notice, so I request adjournment until …!”.