Owner allowed to pierce contractor's corporate immunity
The ConstructionAttorneyBlog points to a recent Illinois appellate court decision permitting a homeowner to recover $1.2 million for construction defects from the spouse of the corporate-builder's owner. The Homeowner contracted with the corporate-builder not the spouse and the spouse owned no shares in the corporate-builder.
But the spouse actually ran the company, the sole shareholder knew virtually nothing about its operations and $1.7 million in corporate assets were liquidated and no documentation supplied that some or all of the proceeds were used to start a new company.
The court imposed imposed liability on the spouse as the company's "equitable owner" notwithstanding his lack of stock because the degree of control he exercised over the company demonstrated "unity of interest and ownership."