United States Seventh Circuit

In a case involving veil-piercing in order to collect on a default judgment, district court's judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) district court was correct in concluding that defendant-Lay-Com was default judgment debtor corporation's de facto principal, as Lay-Com controlled its purse strings in part to avoid its pension benefit and union dues obligations, and it was clear that judgment debtor had no equity capital at all, and thus, was unquestionably undercapitalized; 2) district court was correct in piercing the veil to reach defendant-residential housing contractor for its role in the scheme of transactions; 3) defendant-trust is dismissed from the suit as the district court erred in assigning contingent liability to the trust as there is no sufficient basis for piercing the veil; 4) district court correctly dismissed another defendant from the suit as he played no role in the events at issue other than in the capacity as an officer and director of defendants-companies; and 5) district court did not abuse its discretion in awarding attorneys' fees to plaintiffs and there is no need to reverse the fee award in light of the modification of the merits.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/08/2009
• Decided 09/02/2009
• Published 09/02/2009

Judges

• CUDAHY, Circuit Judge., Before CUDAHY, MANION and TINDER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Patrick T. Wallace (argued), Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs-Appellees/Cross-Appellants., Timothy D. Elliott (argued), Rathje & Woodward, Wheaton, IL, for Defendants-Appellants.